Fishery bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service - NOAA

WHITEFISH FISHERY OF LAKES HURON AND MICHIGAN
abundance of whitefish on the pound-net (shallow-water) and gill-net (deep-water)
grounds of the district and also between the production of whitefish by these two gears.
A similar close resemblance between the statistical data for pound nets and gill nets is
to be found in other districts.
It must be remembered also that any assumption of the existence of shallow-water
and deep-water stocks of whitefish in northeastern Lake Michigan does not make a
similar assumption valid for any other region. In districts H-3 and H-4 of Lake Huron,
for example, the simultaneous collapse of the deep-trap-net and pound-net fisheries must
be interpreted as strong evidence that both gears drew a large part of their production
from the same stock. It is not known, even in northeastern Lake Michigan, to what
extent there may be an interchange of individuals between the inshore and offshore
groups of whitefish.
SUMMARY AND COMPARISON OF THE BATHYMETRIC DISTRIBUTION OF
WHITEFISH IN LAKES HURON AND MICHIGAN, WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO THE REGULATION OF THE FISHERY
The present study of the bathymétrie distribution of the whitefish was part of a
program conducted to obtain reliable data upon which to base a sound regulation of the
deep-trap-net fishery. One question was: "What regulation as to the depth of water
in which deep trap nets should be fished will serve best the dual purpose of protecting
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DEPTH IN FEET
FIGUR* 23.—Bathymétrie distribution of legaUiied (solid lines) and illegal-ailed (broken lines) whitefiah in Lakes Huron and Michigan аз determined
from the combination of the data for ail localities years« and months in each lake.
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