The Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), which was established in 1976 and most recently reauthorized in 2007, does not apply to Great Lakes waters. However, the Federal management system that implements the MSA has similarities to how the Parties co-manage the 1836 Treaty waters. While no fisheries management framework is perfect, we should take opportunities to learn from other areas and make improvements when possible. This is exactly what the Parties did when crafting the management framework for the proposed consent decree. Consultation occurred with Federal stock assessment scientists that manage some of the coastal commercial fisheries of the United States.
Aspects of the management framework in the proposed consent decree are the direct result of those recommendations from scientists who implement the MSA and include: 1) a more robust catch reporting system to improve the accuracy of data; 2) setting harvest limits for multiple years at a time, which allows more time for population models to be completed, reviewed, and documented; and 3) defaulting to a science-based harvest limit if agreement cannot be reached among the Parties on a harvest limit recommendation. The population modeling and harvest limit timeline of the 2000 Consent Decree was too short, which at times resulted in low confidence in the status of fish populations. The management framework in the proposed consent decree would improve upon the 2000 Consent Decree, incorporate lessons learned from Federal fisheries management, and would result in more accurate and defensible population models that will be used to manage Lake Trout and Lake Whitefish.