Symposium Summary: Fisheries Sustainability, Crime, and Enforcement: Whodunnit and How Do We Manage It?

Sponsors: American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists, Environmental Science and Policy Program (MSU), Great Lakes Fishery Commission Law enforcement is an often overlooked, undervalued, and underrepresented component of effective management and conservation programs for marine and freshwater fisheries. The keynote presentation in this symposium detailed law enforcement as a critical fisheries management tool in enforcing and ensuring compliance with laws, rules, and regulations established to optimize the use and benefits of fisheries resources, protect their habitats, and monitor human interactions with these resources. Other presentations stressed the importance of law enforcement as an integral component of fishery management plans, while noting the challenges of monitoring illegal fishing behavior and facilitating law enforcement among the many agencies that impact fisheries production across state, federal, provincial, and tribal jurisdictions. To address these challenges, law enforcement officers and fisheries managers acknowledge that they must work cooperatively to discuss the role of law enforcement in shaping the future of fisheries science and the fisheries profession. Investigations of illegal activity and forensics, measures and socially acceptable models of law enforcement success and compliance, and a healthy balance among education and regulation are necessary for effective fisheries law enforcement and sustainable fisheries management. Bringing law enforcement officers and fisheries professionals together in this forum highlighted the need for a continuing conversation among these sectors and emphasized their common goal of protecting and conserving our fisheries resources. — Molly J. Good, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University, [email protected] Read the symposium abstracts here.