Fishery bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service - NOAA

320 FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
H-l
H-2
TABLE 5.—Total annual production of whitefish in pounds in the different districts and areas of the
State of Michigan waters of Lake Huron, 19S9-1939
District or area
Northern Lake
Huron (H-l and
H-2)
H-3
H-4
Central Lake
Huron (H-3 and
H-4)
H-5
H-6
Southern Lake
Huron (H-5 and
Н-в)
Lake Huron (all 6
districts) .
Percentage of
[Eich total U expressed also as the percentage (in parenthèses) of the production of the entire lake]
1929
/ 375,577
\ (25.8)
1 '274,640
\ (18.9)
( 650,217
1 (44.7)
/ 98,818
1 (6.8)
/ 670,423
1 (46.0)
í 62,987
\ (4.3)
( 72,741
\ (5.0)^
! 135,728
1 (9-3)
Total white6sh production in year
1,456,368 2.879,440 4,139,772 4,050,334 3,333,901 2,568,233 1.894,807 1,442,169 1.018,681
68
1930
" »755,362
(26.2)
'594,526
(20.7)
1,349,888
(46.9)
"247,572
(8.6)
1,290,967
(44.8)
91,493
(3.2)
147,092
(5.1)
238,585
(8.3)
134
1931
'987,466
(23.8)
478,969
(11.6)
1,466,435
(35.4)
470,423
(11.4)
2,418,508
(58.4)
74,038
(1.8)
180,791
(4.4)
254,829
(6.2)
193
1932
623,670
(15.4)
117,432
(2.9)
741,102
(18.3)
137,463
(3.4)
/ 571,605 1 1,043,3954,948,085
'2,462,958
\ (89.2) (36.2) (47.0) (90.8)
2,600,421
(64.2)
1513,409
(12.7)
195,402
(4.8)
708,811
(17.5)
189
1 Year о! introduction of deep trap net.
'Years of heaviest production of whitefish in deep trap net«.
1933
364,683
(11.0)
56,745
(1.7)
422,428
(12.7)
14,130
(0.4)
761,562
(22.8)
775,692
(23.2)
'1,676,432
(50.3)
'459,349
(13.8)
2,135,781
(64.1)
155
1934
378,105
(14.7)
93,116
(3.6)
471,221
(18.3)
14,399
(0.6)
194,945
(7.6)
209,344
(8.2)
784,215
(30.5)
4,103,453
(43.0)
1,887,668
(73.6)
120
1935
372,874
(19.7)
118,287
(6.2)
491,161
(25.9)
8,907
(0.5)
212,513
(11.2)
221.420
(11.7)
273,421
(14.4)
'908,805
(48.0)
1,182,226
(62.4)
88
1936
541,392
(37.5)
55,606
(3.9)
596,998
(41.4)
8,006
(0.6)
128,717
(8.9)
136,723
(9.5)
119,140
(8.3)
589,308
(40.8)
708,448
(49.1)
67
1937
373,755
(36.7)
20,813
(2.0)
394,568
(38.7)
2,798
(0.3)
155,091
(15.2)
157,889
(15.5)
' 66,825
(6.6)
399,399
(39.2)
466,224
(45.8)
48
1938
180,127
(32.3)
41,363
(7.4)
221,490
(39.7)
9,163
(1.7)
55,885
(10.0)
65,048
(11.7)
41,915
(7:5)
229,516
(41.1)
271,431
(48.6)
557,969
26
1939
141,051
(55.3)
42,285
(16.5)
183,336
(71.8)
557
(0.2)
25,945
(10.2)
26,502
(10.4)
12,247
(4.8)
33,098
(13.0)
45,345
(17.8)
255,183 2,145,169
12
Average
463,187
(21.6)
172,162
(8.0)
635.349
(29.6)
92,021
(4.3)
687.337
(32.0)
779,358
(36.3)
337,830
(15.8)
392,632
(18.3)
730,462
(34.1)
all-time high in U931 without the benefit of a really significant contribution from the
southern region of the lake (H-5 and H-6) where the increase from 1929 to 1931
amounted to only 119,000 pounds.
In 1932 the first three districts, H-l, H-2, and H-3, after 2 peak years, suffered a
severe decline in production. The combined decrease amounted to more than a million
pounds. This reduction was compensated to a large extent by further increases
in H-4, the center of the deep-trap-net fishery in 1932, and by the phenomenal rise in
output in H-5, into which district deep trap nets were introduced for the first time.
As a result, the total catch for the lake fell only slightly from the 1931 maximum.
After 2 years of extremely high production the catch of whitefish in H-4 decreased
1,701,000 pounds in 1933. The yield in the first four districts combined dropped
from 3,342,000 pounds in 1932 to 1,198,000 pounds in 1933, a decrease of 2,144,000
pounds. It was hardly to be expected that this large decline in the first four districts
could be compensated fully by a rise in production in southern Lake Huron, a region
that produced only 136,000 pounds of whitefish in 1929. The increase in catch in
southern Lake Huron was nevertheless enormous—1,163,000 pounds in H-5, 264,000
pounds in H-6, and, 1,427,000 pounds in the two districts combined. In H-5 the
1933 production was 26.6 times the yield in 1929 ; for H-5 and H-6 combined the 1933
catch was 15.7 times that of 1929. The production in the entire lake, however, decreased
in 1933 by 716,000 pounds.
The output of whitefish increased markedly in H-6 in 1934 (increase of 644,000
pounds), but the larger decrease of 892,000 pounds in H-5 led to a drop of 248,000
pounds in southern Lake, Huron. Increases ranging from an insignificant recovery
in H-3 to a sharp rise in H-2 occurred in the first three districts. In H-4, however,
the catch dropped 567,000 pounds (from 762,000 pounds in 1933 to 195,000 pounds in
1934). The decrease for all six districts was 766,000 pounds.