Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1910 — ROB LAKE OF FISH [ARTICLE]

ROB LAKE OF FISH

Largest of Inland Seas Fast Losing Its Supply. What Has Become of Trout and Whltefiah In Lake Superior 16 Question That Has Been Agitating Many Fishermen. Marquette, Mich.—What has become of the trout and whiteflsh in Lake Superior? This is a question that Marquette fishermen, in common with others on the south shore of the lake, are asking. Catches have never been so light. The result of an all-day trip with one of the fish tugs is often not more than 300 pounds of fish, which is not enough to pay the operating expenses. A half ton is considered an average catch on a single day. That Lake Superior, known as the abode of the finest whiteflsh in the world, is fast becoming a fishless sea. Is a startling statement, but that is what the fishermen assert. The fishermen have been doing less and less business each year for some time. The tugs have been going farther and farther out each succeeding season, and now the nets are set as much as five hours’ run out of Marquette, and even in those unfrequented waters there arc very few fish. The scarcity of fish in Lake Superior is even more remarkable when it is considered that there are not more than half a dozen fish tugs on the south shore, while no fewer than 126 tugs started out to fish on the south shore of Lake Brie this season. Of course there are many gasoline fishing boats in addition to these, but their numerical proportion on the two lakes is probably about the same as in the case of the steam tugs. There are fewer steam tugs on Lake Superior now than in the past. No tugs are. now operated out of Ontonagon, while last year there were two. In commenting on this condition of affairs, August .Anderson, operator of the tug Columbia, stated that the reason fishing was so much poorer In Lake Superior than in the other great lakes was that the government was not replanting fast enough to take the place of those fished out each year. Lake Superior is now declared to be the poorest of the Great Lakes, as far as fishing is concerned, and this in the face of the fact that it is

fished the least. Until the states and the federal government began planting by the millions and billionß, however, there was the same scarcity of fish in the lower lakes. By liberal propagation Lake Erie add Lake Ontario have become restocked until the fishing interests there report that this has been a very good season. This year the government has planted in the vicinity of Marquette about seven million fish, which is a somewhat larger number than has been planted In past years. The total number of fry planted this year on the south shore of Lake Superior is probably not far from 25,000,000. At first thought it would seem that this was a pretty liberal allowance, but as a matter of fact it is only a drop in the bucket. In comparison, the fish hatchery of the state of Pennsylvania produces an annual output of over one billion, • a large proportion of which are planted in Lake Erie in the vicinity of the city of Erie, while the government hatcheries add considerably to this quota. When it is considered that Pennsylvania is not a fishing state, these figures are quite remarkable and go to show that the mar quette fishermen are not far from right when they say that Lake Superior has been fished out.