Why Pound Fishing Replaced Seine Fishing on Lake Erie

In a previous post, I  explained how and why the Fisheries Commision encouraged the introduction of (european) carp into the Great Lakes to address the dwindling fish supply in the 1880's.  In that post, I also mentioned that I came upon the references to the carp introduction as a diversion from trying to understand why the Sandusky area commercial fishing industry changed from "seine fishing" to "pound fishing" around 1860.  It's time to get back to understanding seines and pounds and why they were so important to Lake Erie's expanding fishing industry in the second half of the 19th century.

The change in technology was clearly important to the Ohio Supreme Court's decision in Sloan v. Biemiller
34 Ohio St. 492(1878).  As it turns out, the change was made simply to take advantage of the higher productivity of the pound method.  A smaller crew could harvest more fish in far less time.  After all, the bounty of the lakes was free for the taking and was limitless - at least under the common wisdom of the day. 

The other thing that happened with seine to pound changeover was that fishing was no longer under the control of the landowner in possession of the shore.  Commercial fishing with seines had to be done from the shore.  Pound fishing was done from pound boats.  The pound boats became the pick-up trucks of Sandusky Bay by the 1880's. Shore access was no longer required and was irrelevant for pound fishing. 

In fact, seine fishing continued to be done from the shore on the Detroit River long after the conversion to pound fishing on Lake Erie.  With time, the equipment was vastly improved with mechanical net retreival systems but it remained labor intensive.  Pound fishing was, of course, impractical on the River because of the impairment of navigation created with the net stakes and extensive leaders required for a commercial pound system.  To this day, net stakes are shown on Lake Erie navigation charts.  The following figures are from the Fishery Commision report to the 50th Congress are were obtained from the Washington University sites provided in the links.

Typical Pound Fishing Arrangement

Lifting the Pot on Lake Erie Pound Fishing System

Seine Fishing From Grassy Island on Detroit River

In the near future, we'll begin to explore the past, present and future of East Harbor State Park's once wonderful beach.  We will explore how the East Harbor Beach has responded to past level changes, storm events and  governmental "fixes."  We'll also crystal ball what's likely to happen in the future.

  

Fortunately, East Harbor's Beach has a citizen group intensely interested in it's restoration.  Beachaideastharbor has been a key advocate for the Beach at East Harbor for nearly a decade.  Their website is at http://beachaideastharbor.com/.