The MSU Fenske Fellowship: Fresh Perspectives on Fish, Management, and Law

Professionals from diverse backgrounds must collaborate for the management of fisheries and aquatic ecosystems to be effective. These professionals include researchers, who provide needed science and data, which informs management decisions; managers, who protect and conserve fisheries and aquatic resources for our future use; and policymakers, who communicate important issues and impact change through policy and legislation. These groups of professionals represent some of the key participants in today’s fisheries and aquatic ecosystem management processes. However, an equally significant but often overlooked group of professionals is comprised of law enforcement officials, whose role in fisheries and aquatic resource management processes includes discovering, deterring, and decreasing illegal and environmentally harmful behavior. Law enforcement officials are the only professionals that possess the on-the-ground power to prevent behavior that harms fisheries resources and aquatic ecosystems, such as polluting, overharvesting, or transporting species from one location to another. Law enforcement officials commonly prevent these harmful behaviors by issuing warnings, citations, and fines, or by educating anglers and natural resource users about the importance of fisheries and aquatic resource protection and conservation. As a new doctoral student at Michigan State University (MSU), I recognized the significance of law enforcement in maintaining order in society from a criminological standpoint, but I did not fully understand its role in fisheries and aquatic ecosystem management and its ultimate influence on fisheries and aquatic resources sustainability. I was eager to better understand its role and influence and further to learn about its effectiveness in the protection and conservation of fisheries and aquatic resources. It was not until I became the 2014–2015 MSU Molly J. Good pictured with a Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha from Lake Michigan. Photo credit: Andrew Muir.