Fisheries Management

Working to sustain the resource

Related Links:

» A lake trout restoration guide for Lake Huron
» A Lake Trout restoration plan for Lake Superior
» Brook Trout Rehabilitation Plan
» Checklists of the fish fauna of the Laurentian Great Lakes and their connecting channels.
» Draft Lake Superior Fish Community Objectives (Revision)
» Fish-community objectives for Lake Huron
» Fish Community Objectives for Lake Michigan
» Fish community objectives for Lake Superior
» Great Lakes Fisheries Policy and Management: A Binational Perspective (available from Michigan State University Press)
» Great Lakes Fisheries Vessels Status of the Fleet (large file)
» Joint Strategic Plan for Management of Great Lakes Fisheries
» Lakewide Assessment Plan for Lake Michigan Fish Communities
» Science Transfer Program
» The state of the Lake Ontario fish community in 1989
» Vision Statement of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission

European colonization of the Great Lakes basin during the past 200 years and attendant urban, industrial, and agricultural development have caused remarkable changes in the lakes' flora and fauna and associated habitats. Today, the lakes have aquatic communities that are structurally and functionally volatile and that exhibit rapid changes in species' number and abundance.

These stresses have been so profound that they have challenged and broadened the thinking of fishery experts. Successful fish management of the Great Lakes is now activity focused on the lakes as ecosystems. As a result, effective management requires the coordination and integration of efforts of many governmental agencies. Fishery-management decision… must consider the potential effects on the whole system rather than only the effects within jurisdictional boundaries.

GLFC Interactive Video
Great Lakes Image Gallery

Photo: American Fisheries Society