Pulling levers for fish habitat management in the Great Lakes

Session: Great Lakes Fish Habitat Priorities Development, Implementation, and Adaptive Management (1)

Roger Knight, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, [email protected]
Jeff Tyson, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, [email protected]
Christine Mayer, University of Toledo, Lake Erie Center, [email protected]

Abstract

Productive fish habitats are essential for sustainable fisheries on desired species in the Great Lakes.  However, fishery managers have few “levers” available to protect or improve critical habitats because some factors are uncontrollable (large size of the Great Lakes, weather, and inherent time lags for ecosystem responses) and others are outside of management agency control (diffuse management authorities, limited resources, and uncertainty). Consequently, fisheries experts in the basin have begun implementing a new science-driven approach to identify and rank actionable priorities to help guide decisions involving fish habitats. Today’s session will 1) Outline the current state of the priority-setting process guided by the GLFC and Council of Lake Committees 2) Explore instances where fishery managers are working with organizations that can implement habitat actions, 3) Provide examples of how science has informed restoration.  Combining a formal priority-setting process and reaching out to organizations that implement habitat actions may allow fishery managers to pull more levers to move restoration forward.