0, ►► di ► „ FISH cook ito ► k
November, 1959
nF FISHFRIFC OF CANAD PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES OF CANADA
CON TEN TS VOL. 12 NO. 5
FEATURES
Survey of Saskatchewan Fisheries 3 Lunenburg Exhibition -- Fisheries Showcase 6 Fourteen-Nation Discussion on North Atlantic Statistics 8 Canned Fish Ideal for Emergency Meals 10 Canadian Fisheries in September 11 CANADIAN FISHERIES NEWS oF Research in Quebec 12 to sz 12 Fishery Officer Retires er. 13 The Value of Fishmeal curn 13 Dr. Hachey to Ottawa able Herring Solubles for Poults 14 twee New Fish Cook Book 14 base 92-1b. Salmon 14 ing Improved Fish Glue 15 neve Fishery Figures for September 16 - 17 scri katc FISHERIES NEWS FROM ABROAD vinc far Norwegian Fisheries Trends 18 18 U.N. Meeting on Sardines nort Southwest African Pilchards 18 of fi U.S. Exports 18 mill larg CURRENT READING 19 con]
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: Many excellent fish recipes appear in the Department of Fisheries' new "Canadian Fish Cook Book", cial attr just off the press, which is described on page 14. in tl the The contents of TRADE NEWS have not been copyrighted and may be reprinted altho ugh ref P" mar with ence to the source would be appreciated. For further information regarding TRADE EWS to the Director of Information and Educational Service, Department of Fisheries, Otta a, Cana
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Fisheries research investigation on Lac la Ronge. Survey of Saskatchewan Fisheries
By J.E.STEEN
it 'emwhere they ain't", Willie Keeler, base- of Fisheries expanded its fish inspection pro- "H ball immortal at the turn of the century, used gramme. All fish processing plants which can meet to say in describing his proficiency as a ball play- the Canadian Government Specifications Board re- er. Keeler meant that by taking advantage of cir- quirements for fish products are eligible for gov- cumstances as they developed on the field, he was ernment inspection. Also, all fish for export is in- able to get base hits by adroitly hitting the ball be- spected by federal officers. At the present time, it tween defend ing players. Although professional is estimated that Saskatchewan exports 75 per cent baseball is as far removed from commercial fish- of its catch to U.S. centres -- only ten per cent is ing as catching whitefish is from catching "flies", consumed locally and the balance is sold to othe r nevertheless this piece of advice has long been sub- Canadian markets. scribed to by the commercial fishermen of Sas- katchewan, who realized that f is hing in this pro- Approximately 135 lakes in the province are vince would only be profitable in the northern lakes, fished commercially, the vast majority of them be- far distant from settled communities. ing in the northern half of the province. Their combined area is 13,725 square miles. The most Last year the deep, cold water s of the s e prolific fishing grounds are Lakes Athabaska, northern lakes yielde'd more than 11 million pounds Reindeer, Big Peter Pond, and Wollaston. of fish with a record market value of s ome two million dollars. The province, which has the third Whitefish is the province's most important largest freshwater fishery in Canada, issued 2,595 commercial stock, as it represents over 50 per cent commercial fishing licenses, another record. of the total catch. Other fish of commercial signifi- cance include lake trout, pickerel, pike, sucker, The inc rease in Saskatchewan's commer- ling, tullibee, sturgeon, goldeye, buffalo fish, and cial fish production over the last few years can be perch. Whitefish, pickerel, and pike are the most attributed chiefly to the accelerated demand for fish plentiful and widely spread species, as they are in the United States. Improvement in quality and found in nearly all the lakes in the province. the introduction of the frozen block pack for the ugh refer- manufacture of "gefilte fish" has had much to do When looking at the history of the commer- with this. In April of 1959, the federal Department cial fishing industry in the province, it is interest- EWS a, Canada, -3- ing to note that the two oldest occupations known to have man, fishing and agriculture, began almost simul- ship taneously in S a s kat chew an , and that most of the ment early settlers were both fishermen and farmers. is po After 1882, pioneers moving into Saskatchewan from tain other countries as well as those from eastern was Canada, flocked to districts in the western and katcl south-eastern sections of the provinc e . As one staff. would expect, those who settled near lakes invari- unive ably utilized fish for food supplie s . After these mer precursors became more firmly established on the land, they sold their excess c at ches locally; this laid the foundation of the province's commercial on fishing industry. By 1886 the industry had expanded 1, 50( to such a degree that small shipments of whitefish inc or were exported to the United States. In 1957, w ell Bran over 5 million pounds of whitefish alone was export- ass is ed to the United States. they FARMER-FISHERMAN this Indian workers unloading fillets flown to Lac la velor The early settler, who played the dual econo- Ronge from Pinehouse (Snake Lake). seta] mic role of farmer and fisherman, fostered the de- by C( velopment of the province's c om m e r c i al fishery winter scene, as it is more commonly the case now on a by working his farm in the summer and fishing in for snowmobiles, deployed in a systematic pick-up there the winter months. And to a large extent this pat- pattern, to transport the catch to railheads. in th( tern has continued to the present time, as the part- Marl time farmer on the agricultural fringe of the north Nevertheless, transportation is still the main the p still fishes in the winter to supplement his income. difficulty in marketing fish caught in the winter op- havir In recent years, he has been joined in this economic eration. It is a long way from northern lake s to fish endeavour by the Indians and Metis of the north, cities in the southern part of the pr o v in c e and to e x i f. who are playing an increasingly important par t in U.S. centres. If the catch is frozen when taken Fish( the fishing industry. In many cases dire necessity from lakes, it must not be allowed to thaw before vinci has forced this latter group into the fishery, as they reaching its destination. On the other hand, if the aged are finding it more difficult each year to make a catch is shipped fresh, it must not be allowed to corn' living by fur trapping. freeze.
The introduction of refrigeration, use of the Improved roads are making many more lakes sight airplane and the extension of roads into the north accessible for summer fishing. But of course, the agerr has completely changed the c omp le x ion of Sas- airplane and improved processing and refrigeration the n katchewan's fishing industry. Until a few years methods have been chiefly respons i b le for the wher ago, commercial fishing in the province was pre- emergence of summer fishing as the predominant not s dominantly a winter operation. However, this has operation. From the northern lakes , aircraft fly be u: now been reversed. In 1957, approximately 62 per the catch to be iced and boxed at Beaver Lake, near est cent of the total catch, or 6,857,754 pounds, wa s the Manitoba border, close to Flin Flon. Fish are ther: taken in the summer. Just how startling this tran- also flown from Wollaston Lake and trucked from tal of sition has been is shown by the fact that as recently Reindeer Lake to Lynn Lake, Manitoba. 5,68 as 1951, only3,558,000 pounds constituted the sum- mer catch. No one welcomes this as much as the From Beaver and Lynn Lakes, this perish- fishermen themselves as the winter operation ha s able food product is assured of speedy transit so offic always been most arduous. that it will reach the distant cities in top flavour and tendi quality. Small skiffs and canoes, between 15 and 18 from Winter fishing is intrinsically the same in feet in length,are the most commonly used vessels and ( every freshwater area in Canada. By its very na- in this fishery. A few two to three-man boats, 28 bow ture, this type of fishing conjures up images of to 40 feet in length, are also used primarily in area hardy fishermen buffeted by frigid arctic winds as Reindeer and Wollaston Lakes. suita they struggle to place their nets beneath thick lay- ers of ice. This conception of winter fishing in The Province's fisheries are administered by Saskatchewan becomes all the more vivid when it is the Fisheries Branch of th e Saskatchewan Depart- Fort merged with a further image of sleighs drawn by ment of Natural Resources. The management pro- rainl tractors, horses and even dogs hauling the catch to gramme is conducted on a scientific basis; in 1947 a meni railheads. This, indeed, is part of the winter fish- large scale biological programme was undertaken Ron€ ing operation in Saskatchewan. Howe v e r , these and since then more than 100 water areas have been been means of transportation are rapidly fading from the studied to determine their productivity. Biologists Fonc
-4- have also paid special attention to the interrelation - ship of species and the ir life histories. Experi- ments are now in progress to determine whether it is possible to introduce non-native species to cer- tain water areas. A provincial fisheries laboratory was established in 1947 at the University of Sas- katchewan, and has five permanent biologists on its staff. In addition, 12 student biologists from the university are us ually employed during the sum- mer months on biological surveys.
It is true that no-one in the province depends on fishing exclusively for his livelihood, hOwever 1,500 residents derive the major source of their income from this primary industry. The Fisheries Branch has been charged with the responsibility of assisting fishermen to bolster their income so that they will have a better standard of living. To meet this challenge, the Branch has encouraged the de- ac la velopment of fishermen's co-operatives, and the Provincial fish hatchery at Fort Qu'Appelle setting up of filleting plants, now be in g purchased by Co-operative Fisheries Ltd. from the province spawn camp on the Montreal River near Lac la on a time -payment basis. At the present time now Ronge. The most serious threat facing the Sas- there are 11 modern cold storage and filleting plants -k-up katchewan fisheries is the migration of carp to in the pr ov in c e . The former Saskatchewan Fish areas where they have never before been found. In s played an important part in Marketing Service has 1953, carp fingerlings were found in the overflow the past in aiding fishermen to sell their products, main waters of the Assiniboine River, near Kamsack. having last year marketed about 47 per cent of the 7 op - They were also found that summer in the Qu'Appelle fish produced. This Service has now gone out of s to River west of Crooked Lake. nd to existence by selling its assets toCo-operative Fisheries Limited, an organization which the pro- a ken Carp, unlike the lampreys of the Great Lakes vincial government hopes will be owned and man- More are not lethal to other fish, but are possibly best aged by fishermen through co-operation, when they f the described as a nuisance to the commercial fisher- complete the above-mentioned payments. ad to men, as they compete with more commercially pop- ular fish stocks for food while they themselves are A practical illustration which shows the fore- not highly valued as a fish product. Moreover, they sight of the Fisheries Branch has been the encour- akes are little eaten by the more prized species. the agement that body has given to the development of the mink ranching industry on lake s in the north, ition Biologists have observed that carp fingerlings where the r e is a large population of fish which is the taken in by angle r s for bait and occasionally re- not suitable for human consumption but which could nant leased, have been responsible for transferring the be used by the ranc he r s to feed mink. The lat- t fly species from one drainage area to another. In est available statistical information reveals that tear order to check the spreading of this undesirable there are 94 fur farms in the province, with a to' are fish, the Fisheries Branch has prohibited the use of tal of 49,534 mink, which were fed approximately rom minnows and other small fish for bait throughout 5,685,372 pounds of coarse fish. the province. ish- In the last few years provincial fish culture Faced with the fact that the migration of carp t so officials have been placing great emphasis on ex- is a continuing problem, the Fisheries Branch con- and tending the range of the arctic grayling species ducted extensive seining operations in the summer 18 from the far north into the Churchill River area, of 1957 to determine the extent of carp in the prov- sels and on the introduction of eastern brook and rain- ince. Tests were made on the White s an Red 28 bow trout and certain warm water species into Deer, Assiniboine and Qu'Appelle Rivers in eastern areas where preliminary studies seem to indicate Saskatchewan, and on the Souris and its tributaries ( in suitable environment. in the southeast.
by A new fish culture station has been built at Investigations have been conducted in the use irt- Fort Qu'Appelle for the hatching of pickerel and of such remedial measures as the use of electrical ro- rainbow, brown and lake trout. Also, an experi- barriers in strategic places, but it is felt that many L7 a mental hatchery has been established at Lac la dangers and difficulties would be inhe rent in this ken Ronge where arctic g rayling and lake trout have practice. In the future the Branch will attempt to een been hatched, an arctic grayling spawn camp in the contain and restrict carp by selective poisoning and is is Fond-du-lac River near Black Lake, and a pickerel the maintenance of present control measures.V'
-5- Lunenburg Exhibition... • • •
A thrilling moment in the International Dory Races won by Canada
ROM a humble "Welcome Home" picnic to celebrate the safe return of the deepsea fishermen from their codfishing campaign on the distant banks, the Nova Scotia Fisheries Exhibition and Fishermen's Re- unionF has grown through the years to become the most significant event of its kind in Canada. In the begin- ning a one-day affair, the "Lunenburg Exhibition", as it is more commonly known, this year began on Sep- tember 15 and officially closed on the 19th when the many prizes won during the week were presented.
Once again this year the Exhibition was replete with the many attractions that have made it a fisheries "showcase". As may be expected fish -- alive in aquaria, preserved in ice, and processed -- were a dom- inant theme as were the crafts of the fishing trade, some of which were demonstrated in the knitting of nets and making of lobster pots. Pageantry was represented by such colourful events as the Queen of the Sea Contest and the Children's Parade, while the days of iron men and wooden ships were relived in the stirring International Dory Races which resulted in wins, in both the senior and junior races, by Canadian oarsim over their fishing cousins from Massachusetts.
The week's celebrations ended on a solemn note on Sunday, September 20, when a remembrance serv- ice was held on Memorial Square, overlooking the harbour, for fishermen who have given their lives to their calling. This ceremony concluded with wreaths being deposited on one of the town's main fishing wharves, from where they would be taken to sea by the first outbound fishing vessel and dropped on the waters of the Atlantic that have claimed so many Nova Scotians.
Salt fish cutting demonstration "Safety Special" - feature of Children's Parade Dep
-6- ...Fisheries Showcase
SIPAITMENT Ii FINN
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