Balancing Fisheries Management and Water Uses for Impounded River Systems

Balancing Fisheries Management and Water Uses for Impounded River Systems: An Introduction

Micheal S. Allen, Steve Sammons, and Michael J. Maceina

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781934874066.ch1

Impounded river systems contribute substantially to society and provide water supplies, flood control, power generation, transport of goods, irrigation for agriculture, and recreational opportunities. Reservoirs also cause ecological harm, including loss of habitat for native stream fauna, and can cause deleterious downstream impacts, leading to large declines in population size and extirpations of stream-dependent species (Jelks et al. 2008). Balancing the wide range of human interests and ecological issues that surround reservoirs is a challenge that not only continues, but is likely to intensify. Water resources are becoming more restricted owing to both human population expansion and climate change that is expected to increase the severity and duration of drought and flood periods (Meehl and Tebaldi 2004). Recent water allocation conflicts in the United States and abroad (e.g., Australia) support the notion that conflicts over water resources will increase. Water allocation decisions can often be made amicably, but in some cases, lawsuits occur, and there is a need to identify the utility of this option regarding water allocation issues and fisheries.

The context of reservoir fisheries management has evolved through time as the scope of fisheries issues have expanded from local to basin-wide systems. Reservoir fisheries managers have historically focused on the fish and fisheries within each reservoir, but increasingly, managers are called to participate in broader discussions related to basin-wide management policy options. Fishery managers must evaluate and predict fishery outcomes for proposed policy options and debate the utility of those options in the context of the wide-ranging uses of reservoirs. Traditional fisheries management strategies (e.g., length limits, fish stocking programs) may not improve many fisheries, for example, those that suffer habitat loss due to reservoir aging and alterations to the watershed leading to increased sedimentation. In these cases, thinking outside the individual reservoir is required, and thus, there is a need to put fisheries management in the context of broader basin issues.