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Legal Considerations in Inland Fisheries Management. Chapter 4. The Law and Fisheries. Fisheries managers must understand relevant laws and how they and the system work. Legal Issues. There are six legal issues that fisheries managers must deal with regularly: 1) Constitutional law
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Legal Considerations in Inland Fisheries Management Chapter 4
The Law and Fisheries • Fisheries managers must understand relevant laws and how they and the system work.
Legal Issues • There are six legal issues that fisheries managers must deal with regularly: • 1) Constitutional law • 2) Treaties • 3) Native people’s rights • 4) Harvest regulations • 5) Water allocation • 6) Private property rights
Constitutional law • Powers given to federal, state governments • Who has jurisdiction? • USFWS • DNR • Trend toward central control
Treaties • Federal government relations with neighbors, natives • International agreements may be paramount over other statutes • Native American water rights, fishing rights • Complexity! Who controls the resource?
Native people’s rights • Treaties, aboriginal rights, federal trusteeship • 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
Harvest regulations • Responsibility of states in U.S. • Federal gov’t. can affect state regulation via interstate commerce • Responsibility of federal government in Canada, Mexico • Provinces can affect federal regulations via property rights
Water allocation • Affects fish habitat • Habitat preservation historically not considered beneficial use of water worthy of legal protection • Continuing problems with water rights legally granted for perpetuity
Private property rights • Legal doctrines, policies that tell landowners what they can, cannot do with their property • States can regulate land use • Federal government can control pollution • Obligation to protect public resources places limits on private property
The Fisheries’ Political Arena • 1) Electoral politics • Who are the leaders? • What is their “vision”? • 2) Legislative politics • Work with lawmakers on policy development
The Fisheries’ Political Arena-cont. • 3) Judicial politics • Expert witness • Regulation interpretations (court adviser) • 4) Implementation politics • Regulation enforcement • May require interagency cooperation, bargaining