Inter-jurisdictional Fisheries

Some fish species by their very nature are not home bodies. They move through the seasons of the year, or their season in life to fulfill their needs. As a consequence, fishes move across political boundaries, be they state lines or international boundaries. This requires fishery managers to coordinate among political entities through tribal councils, interstate fishery commissions, or regional management councils.

It may be the most unusual freshwater fish. The paddlefish wanders widely in the large streams of the Mississippi River Basin, from Montana to Louisiana. That includes the big tributaries of the Verdigris and Arkansas rivers of Oklahoma where biologists from the Oklahoma Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office continue to steward the fish’s restoration under the auspices of the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association

Lake trout like deep, dark, cold water and the Great Lakes have it all. These long-lived, large-growing fish benefit from the work of biologists at the Green Bay Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office based near its namesake Wisconsin town. Scientists there have prodigiously published the findings of their lake trout research in scientific journals, furthering what we know about, and can do for, this important fish. Their work is guided in part by coordination with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission

The need to connect fish to needed habitat is emblematic of Inter-jurisdictional fisheries management. Maine Fishery Resources Office personnel provide technical assistance to engineers and road builders to ensure that federally endangered Atlantic salmon can navigate through new, fish-friendly, road culverts. Such work is done under the sponsorship of the National Fish Passage Program