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7. The Fishers and the Fish
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7 The Fishers and the Fish I Live Here and I Will Do All I Can to Save the Fish The changing attitudes of Great Lakes fishers toward the resource varied widely during the nineteenth century. From the era of frontier plenty through the Civil War, few questioned its long-term durability. After that, doubts grew, shaped and influenced by individuals' short- and long-term expectations for working the water, perceptions of the abundance and durability of the resource over time, changing economic conditions in the industry, the rigors of the fisherman's work, and pressures to make a livelihood. INCOME IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET To evaluate the relationship between the resource and full-time fishermen, who made up the majority of fishers in the United States and Canadian census counts, both their incomes and the ways the industry's expansion affected them have to be considered. One of the biggest voids in contemporary records are data on the incomes of fishers. Neither the Canadian nor the American government gathered occupational income figures, but scattered evidence in government reports reveals a wide range of earnings. When Ludwig Kumlien did fieldwork around the American shores of the Great Lakes in 1879 as part of his research for a special report, he found it virtually impossible to gather data on fishermen's income systematically. But he did record what he could discover about fishers' economic status in the places where he conducted interviews. He generalized that pound89 PART I. COMMERCIAL FISHING, 1800-1893 Table 7.1. Average size and value of catch per fisherman, for the United States and Canada, 1880-1890 U.S. Canada Value Value Year Pounds Current Indexed Pounds Current Indexed 1880 13,612 $328 $328 5,911 $215 $215 1885 10,952 295 251 10,821 501 426 1890 14,253 309 253 9,878 686 563 Sources: Frederick W. True, "The Fishes of the Great Lakes," in George Brown Goode, The Fisheries and Fishing Industries ofthe United States, Section 2, 47th Cong., 1st sess., 1881, S. Misc. Doc. 124 (Serial 1999), 633; Hugh M. Smith, "The Fisheries of the Great Lakes," in U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Report, 1892, Appendix A, 53d Cong., 2d sess., 1893, H. Misc. Doc. 209 (Serial 3264), 366; U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries , Report, 1895, 54th Cong., 2d sess., 1896, H. Doc. 104 (Serial 3518), 96; Canada, Sessional Papers, 1891, no. 8A, 211, 1892, no. 11, !iii; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial ed., 93d Cong., 1st sess., 1973, H. Doc. 93-78, Part 1,201. Note: More than 95 percent of the Canadian catch went to American markets, so the American index was used for both Canadian and American figures. The indexed value is based on the Warren and Pearson index of wholesale prices, 1910-1914 = 100. net fishermen as a group were men with "considerable capital" and able "to carryon a large business." Among the gill-net fishermen, given the broad spectrum of technology used, from the Mackinaw boat and a few nets to steam-powered tugboats setting miles of gill nets, great variations in income existed: "Participation in the gill-net fishery does not imply the possession of any considerable amount of capital, as in the pound fishery, and hence we find all classes of fishermen employed." Beyond those generalizations , Kumlien's findings were spotty and impressionistic. He referred to those who were poor, those in comfortable circumstances, those who were moderately wealthy, and so on.1 In a study of the Great Lakes fisheries conducted in 1885, the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries cited specific examples of wages paid to hired fishermen. They ranged from $20 to $35 a month plus board, depending on location, with rates running as high as $50 a month with board for trained fishermen and $60 to $80 a month plus board for foremen and boat captains. On fishing tugs, captains earned $50 to $100 a month; engineers, $75 to $85; and fishing crewmen, $25 to $50. The common wage of $2 a day for fishermen in the more populous parts of the Great Lakes in 1885 was the same as that of industrial workers.2 Still another approach to the income question is through the prices that fishermen received for their catch, as found in official records. The average size and value of catch per fisherman shown in table 7.1 are...