Fisheries
Onondaga Lake once supported cold-water subsistence, commercial, and sport fisheries (Siniscal 2009, Beauchamp 1908, Tango and Ringler 1996). Migratory fishes such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and eel (Anguilla rostrata) were abundant in the waters of Onondaga Lake and the Lake Ontario/St Lawrence drainage system generally. When Simon Le Moine arrived at Onondaga Lake on August 16, 1653, he reported a lake “very rich in salmon trout and other fish.” Father Chaumont wrote the following year that, in addition to fish taken at other times of the year, “the eel is so abundant there in autumn that some take with a harpoon as many as a thousand in a single night” (Beauchamp 1908).
The Jesuit fathers who followed in 1656 reported on the astonishing “fertility of this country,” which was “everywhere watered by Lakes, Rivers, and Springs, which are found even on the highest mountains.” Further
. . . if these waters make the earth fertile, they themselves are none the less fruitful in what pertains to them. The fish most commonly found in them are Eels and Salmon, which are caught there from the Spring to the end of Autumn.
Our Savages construct their dams and sluices so well, that they catch at the same time the Eels, that descend, and the Salmon, that always ascend. In the Lakes, they catch fish in a different manner; they spear them with a trident by the light of a bituminous fire, which they maintain in the bows of their canoes (Thwaites 1899).
Native people built eel weirs to help capture the fish. One large stone weir, about 1200 feet long, could until recently be found along the Seneca River near Baldwinsville (Beauchamp 1900). Eel were taken at night, using torches placed in the bows of canoes.
Eel seemed a dietary staple at all times of year, and is mentioned often by early travelers. Bartram reports being served “dry’d Eels boiled in Hominy” while at Onondaga in 1743. (Bartram et al. 1973). Along the Oswego River botanist Frederick Pursh, hungry, “had to wait, until nearly sunset, to get anything to eat, and then it was nothing but eel, which I could never eat” (Pursh 1869). Zeisberger reports that during travels near Onondaga, “all that we had to eat was dried eel” (Frederick and Zeisburger 1916).
[Add Content from articles from Dawn Dittmann on Oswego river eel fishery from New York Times:
1. 1850s Eel weirs on Oswego River
2. 1872? Seth Green says eel weirs preventing stocking success of “California salmon” ie some kind of Pacific salmon]
Burbot (Lota lota) were also formerly abundant (Greeley 1928). In fact, the Onondaga Lake fisheries often produced catches of tens of thousands of pounds and generated thousands of dollars (Siniscal 2009). The “Onondaga Lake whitefish” (Coregonus spp.) was also a very important part of the fishery in the 1800’s (Siniscal 2009). The actual species of this fish remains unknown because of a lack of museum specimens. Whether the Onondaga Lake whitefish was the common cisco (Coregonus artedi) or an extinct species of Coregoninae, the fish was part of a very important cold-water fishery that disappeared from the lake by 1897 (Ringler et al. 1996).
The whitefish, now “but a sweet-morseled memory, . . . disappeared from the Lake with startling suddenness” (Post Standard 1905).
There used to be royal catches of these fish, particularly on the Liverpool side, and the epicure found their flavor ahead of that of whitefish gathered from any other waters.
According to J.H. Forey, then president of the Anglers Association of Onondaga,
There has been talk about replenishing the lake more than once, but it is out of the question. The trouble is that the materials from a number of industrial establishments around the lake gradually spread about the bottom till they covered the spawning beds. This accounts for the suddenness with which the fish disappeared. There was no place to spawn and the fish living in the lake left it, undoubtedly proceeding via the outlet to the Seneca River (Post Standard 1905).
Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) were once plentiful, especially in the Seneca River but also occurring in Onondaga Lake. “The usual length,” reports Beauchamp (1809) for Seneca River sturgeon, “is about four feet.” One was taken at Jack’s Reef in June 1895, weighing 67 pounds. The fish community of Onondaga Lake is reflected in Liverpool street names from 1807, which included Sturgeon, Trout, Salmon, Pike, Perch, Bass. The names later changed to reflect the loss of many of these fishes.
The original fish community of Onondaga Lake has been drastically altered (Siniscal 2009). Salmon runs suffered impacts as early as 1810 due to mill dams and increasing boat traffic (Webster 1982). Beauchamp (1908) laments the declining fishery in the early 1900s: “Owing to changes in the water, caused by various manufacturies, to the diminution of food, and wasteful and indiscriminate fishing, the fish supply is not to be compared with that of the early days.”
The loss of Onondaga Lake’s subsistence fishery came not only from disappearance of specific fishes (e.g. salmon and eel), but due also to contamination caused by indiscriminant dumping of chemical and other wastes. This loss has tremendous cultural ramifications for people such as the Onondaga who relied on fish as a major part of their diet. Count Paolo Andreani, in his journal of 1790, notes the particular dependence of the Onondaga on fish:
The inhabitants of this nation [the Onondagas, i.e.] are not hunters, but rather pursue fishing . . . They spend four months out of the year in this occupation, and they prepare the principal nourishment for the winter. A part of them fish in Lake Onondaga, and others travel farther, sometimes to the Seneka River . . . (Andreani 2006)
Regarding the subsistence use of fish by the Onondagas, Claude Dablon wrote in 1655 of the seasonal progression of species abundance:
Then comes the brill; and, at the end of May, when strawberries are ripe, sturgeon are killed with hatchets. All the rest of the year until winter, the salmon furnishes food to the Village of Onontaé (Thwaites 1899)
The Jesuit fathers who followed in 1656 reported on the astonishing “fertility of this country,” which was “everywhere watered by Lakes, Rivers, and Springs, which are found even on the highest mountains.” Further
. . . if these waters make the earth fertile, they themselves are none the less fruitful in what pertains to them. The fish most commonly found in them are Eels and Salmon, which are caught there from the Spring to the end of Autumn.
Our Savages construct their dams and sluices so well, that they catch at the same time the Eels, that descend, and the Salmon, that always ascend. In the Lakes, they catch fish in a different manner; they spear them with a trident by the light of a bituminous fire, which they maintain in the bows of their canoes (Thwaites 1899).
Native people built eel weirs to help capture the fish. One large stone weir, about 1200 feet long, could until recently be found along the Seneca River near Baldwinsville (Beauchamp 1900). Eel were taken at night, using torches placed in the bows of canoes.
Eel seemed a dietary staple at all times of year, and is mentioned often by early travelers. Bartram reports being served “dry’d Eels boiled in Hominy” while at Onondaga in 1743. (Bartram et al. 1973). Along the Oswego River botanist Frederick Pursh, hungry, “had to wait, until nearly sunset, to get anything to eat, and then it was nothing but eel, which I could never eat” (Pursh 1869). Zeisberger reports that during travels near Onondaga, “all that we had to eat was dried eel” (Frederick and Zeisburger 1916).
[Add Content from articles from Dawn Dittmann on Oswego river eel fishery from New York Times:
1. 1850s Eel weirs on Oswego River
2. 1872? Seth Green says eel weirs preventing stocking success of “California salmon” ie some kind of Pacific salmon]
Burbot (Lota lota) were also formerly abundant (Greeley 1928). In fact, the Onondaga Lake fisheries often produced catches of tens of thousands of pounds and generated thousands of dollars (Siniscal 2009). The “Onondaga Lake whitefish” (Coregonus spp.) was also a very important part of the fishery in the 1800’s (Siniscal 2009). The actual species of this fish remains unknown because of a lack of museum specimens. Whether the Onondaga Lake whitefish was the common cisco (Coregonus artedi) or an extinct species of Coregoninae, the fish was part of a very important cold-water fishery that disappeared from the lake by 1897 (Ringler et al. 1996).
The whitefish, now “but a sweet-morseled memory, . . . disappeared from the Lake with startling suddenness” (Post Standard 1905).
There used to be royal catches of these fish, particularly on the Liverpool side, and the epicure found their flavor ahead of that of whitefish gathered from any other waters.
According to J.H. Forey, then president of the Anglers Association of Onondaga,
There has been talk about replenishing the lake more than once, but it is out of the question. The trouble is that the materials from a number of industrial establishments around the lake gradually spread about the bottom till they covered the spawning beds. This accounts for the suddenness with which the fish disappeared. There was no place to spawn and the fish living in the lake left it, undoubtedly proceeding via the outlet to the Seneca River (Post Standard 1905).
Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) were once plentiful, especially in the Seneca River but also occurring in Onondaga Lake. “The usual length,” reports Beauchamp (1809) for Seneca River sturgeon, “is about four feet.” One was taken at Jack’s Reef in June 1895, weighing 67 pounds. The fish community of Onondaga Lake is reflected in Liverpool street names from 1807, which included Sturgeon, Trout, Salmon, Pike, Perch, Bass. The names later changed to reflect the loss of many of these fishes.
The original fish community of Onondaga Lake has been drastically altered (Siniscal 2009). Salmon runs suffered impacts as early as 1810 due to mill dams and increasing boat traffic (Webster 1982). Beauchamp (1908) laments the declining fishery in the early 1900s: “Owing to changes in the water, caused by various manufacturies, to the diminution of food, and wasteful and indiscriminate fishing, the fish supply is not to be compared with that of the early days.”
The loss of Onondaga Lake’s subsistence fishery came not only from disappearance of specific fishes (e.g. salmon and eel), but due also to contamination caused by indiscriminant dumping of chemical and other wastes. This loss has tremendous cultural ramifications for people such as the Onondaga who relied on fish as a major part of their diet. Count Paolo Andreani, in his journal of 1790, notes the particular dependence of the Onondaga on fish:
The inhabitants of this nation [the Onondagas, i.e.] are not hunters, but rather pursue fishing . . . They spend four months out of the year in this occupation, and they prepare the principal nourishment for the winter. A part of them fish in Lake Onondaga, and others travel farther, sometimes to the Seneka River . . . (Andreani 2006)
Regarding the subsistence use of fish by the Onondagas, Claude Dablon wrote in 1655 of the seasonal progression of species abundance:
Then comes the brill; and, at the end of May, when strawberries are ripe, sturgeon are killed with hatchets. All the rest of the year until winter, the salmon furnishes food to the Village of Onontaé (Thwaites 1899)