1. Legal Considerations in Inland Fisheries Management Chapter 4

2. The Law and Fisheries n Fisheries managers must understand relevant laws and how they and the system work.

3. Legal Issues n There are six legal issues that fisheries managers must deal with regularly: n 1) Constitutional law n 2) Treaties n 3) Native people’s rights n 4) Harvest regulations n 5) Water allocation n 6) Private property rights

4. Constitutional law n Powers given to federal, state governments n Who has jurisdiction? – USFWS – DNR n Trend toward central control

5. Treaties n Federal government relations with neighbors, natives n International agreements may be paramount over other statutes n Native American water rights, fishing rights – Complexity! Who controls the resource?

6. Native people’s rights n Treaties, aboriginal rights, federal trusteeship n Right to fish for subsistence, religious & commercial purposes, maintain living standard – Balanced against state responsibility to provide self-sustaining fish populations – May be affected by endangered species

7. Harvest regulations n Responsibility of states in U.S. – Federal gov’t. can affect state regulation via interstate commerce n Responsibility of federal government in Canada, Mexico – Provinces can affect federal regulations via property rights

8. Water allocation n Affects fish habitat n Habitat preservation historically not considered beneficial use of water worthy of legal protection n Continuing problems with water rights legally granted for perpetuity

9. Private property rights n Legal doctrines, policies that tell landowners what they can, cannot do with their property – States can regulate land use – Federal government can control pollution n Obligation to protect public resources places limits on private property

10. The Fisheries’ Political Arena n 1) Electoral politics – Who are the leaders? – What is their “vision”? n 2) Legislative politics – Work with lawmakers on policy development

11. The Fisheries’ Political Arena -cont. n 3) Judicial politics – Expert witness – Regulation interpretations (court adviser) n 4) Implementation politics – Regulation enforcement – May require interagency cooperation, bargaining