Fish and Wildlife Service: Fisheries and Habitat Conservation

Symmetry and the Future of Fisheries Conservation

By Gary Frazer
(Editorial from Eddies)

There is a certain symmetry in this special issue of Eddies, a pairing and a balance, if you will. You’ll find something old and something new. One half of the magazine has the normal features we’ve delivered in each issue of Eddies, and in the other half we give you some quick looks at work done on the ground and in the water over the last five years.

The ancient pallid sturgeon is the topic of our “American Fishes” department in this special issue of Eddies, served up by John Bryan. It’s been called a “swimming dinosaur,” as fossil records show that the fish has existed in its present form since, well, since rocks were made. The pallid sturgeon embodies a story of survival over epochs and then has feebly hung on over the last century of assaults to its habitat. It also embodies the commitment of our National Fish Hatcheries and Fish and Wildlife Conservation Offices through the Mississippi and Missouri River basins, and our partners in conservation share to keep this fish from going extinct, and more, to turn the trend toward a growing population in the wild. Modern science and technology are at work to see that this happens.

It’s appropriate that Spencer Fullerton Baird is our “Pioneer” for this issue. His story is deftly told by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service historian, Dr. Mark Madison. Baird essentially created the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1871, urging Congress then to create the U.S. Fish Commission. Baird was a highly regarded scientist in his day, mentioned in the same breath as names more well-known. Having recently read Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley, I am reminded how Baird’s scientific acumen influenced the conservation ethos of a future president. Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “My chief interests were scientific. When I entered college, I was devoted to out-of-doors natural history, and my ambition was to be a scientific man of the Audubon, or Wilson, or Baird, or Coues type — a man like Hart Merriam.” Baird continues to influence us in fisheries conservation 138 years later. We named a ship in his honor, the M/V Spencer Fullerton Baird, a science vessel that plies the Great Lakes today in service to you.

Professor Baird’s story represents the days of the distant past. But the past, no matter how distant, is prologue; our history begets the future. Grounded in science, we in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fisheries Program now embark on renewing the next five years of our strategic plan. Along with our partners, the plan will be our guide to conserving fisheries for the American people. We reasoned that Eddies would be the most appropriate place to tell in some snap shots what we’ve accomplished in the last five-year period.

Fisheries conservation in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is guided by not only law and policy, but at the practical level, it is charted by Conserving America’s Fisheries: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fisheries Program Vision for the Future. Our first five-year plan was built from this vision in 2004 with our partners at our side, convened by the Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council. Our strategic plan focuses our work into seven areas, and they are reported here in one half of Eddies.

I think that you will see that we have in the Fisheries Program, the unique ability to work in fisheries conservation outside confining boundaries. And we don’t go at it alone, but paired in partnership, in symmetry with many — state agencies, Native Americans, industry, and conservation organizations. Reading over what we have done makes me look forward to the next five years.

Bryan Arroyo biography

Last updated: October 28, 2009