The Fisherman journal or digest was originally published by Claude Ver Duin and family from 1931 to 1994. "The news journal of the Great Lakes fisheries," was the official publication of the Midwest Federated Fisheries Council. This news journal series offers many stories, advertisements, and images relating to the Great Lakes fisheries over time.
Claude Ver Duin, a lifelong resident of Grand Haven Michigan, was a fisherman and printer. Son of Caleb Ver Duin and Hilda Bolthouse Ver Duin he was a third-generation American fisherman of Dutch descent. Through his work he became Michigan’s foremost promoter of Great Lakes commercial fishing. Ver Duin was the Secretary of the Michigan Fish Producers Association and published The Fisherman from 1931 until his death in 1990. Ver Duin came to know the federal policy makers and scientists on the Great Lakes monitoring issues that involved the industry. The fishing industry was important enough that Ver Duin met with Congressman Gerald Ford and Senator Richard M. Nixon in Grand Haven during the 1952 presidential campaign as they worked to get the Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower elected. In 1956, Eisenhower appointed Ver Duin to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The Commission, which had spun out of the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries, was created to develop a binational (United States and Canada) cooperation for research and policy with the aim of sustaining the Great Lakes fish stocks. From the very beginning of the organizations creation, his demeaner gained him the respect of those in the industry to the point that he became the spokesperson for the fisherman of Michigan and set the tone for bilateral cooperation. In publishing the Fisherman Mr. Ver Duin had the assistance of his wife Fern Ver Duin and then later his son Robert who also became an editor. Bob Ver Duin maintains the family print shop in Grand Haven.
This journal collection has been digitized by the University of Michigan, and is available online at the Hathi Trust Digital Library. Collection includes the following editions from this journal series:
- Full viewv.1-3 1931-34 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.3-7 1934-38 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.7-13 1938-45 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.14-15 1946-47 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.16-17 1948-49 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.18-21 1950-53 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.22-27 1954-1976 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.28-29 1976-1977 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.30-31 1978-1979 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.32 1980 no.2-7 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.33 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.34-36 1982-84 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.37-38 1985-86 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.39 no.1-4 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.40 1988 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.41-42 1989-1990 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.43 no.1 1991 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.44 no.1-3 1992-1993 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.45 no.4 1993 (original from University of Michigan)
- Full viewv.46 no.1 1994 (original from University of Michigan)