Unharvested fishes in the U. S. commercial fishery of western Lake Erie in 1969

Potential commercial fish production was estimated for U.S. waters of western Lake Erie in 1969 from pounds landed and pounds discarded. Periodic observations of catches in haul seines and trap nets revealed that about 37% of the catch (by weight) in haul seines and 26% of that in trap nets were low-value fishes that were discarded. Projection of these discarded catches to include the total fishing effort indicated that an additional 2.8 million lb of low-value species would have been landed in 1969 if a reasonable profit had been assured. It is concluded that the sustained yield could be increased considerably with only a moderate increase in fishing effort.