Great Lakes dealers are celebrating a groundbreaking agreement between three groups tasked with varying aspects of managing these lakes, which hold 22% of the world’s fresh water and account for a $7 billion annual fishery.
The Great Lakes Commission, Great Lakes Fishery Commission and International Joint Commission recently gathered in D.C. and signed a formal agreement to work together to protect local ecosystems and the economies that depend upon them. The agreement basically commits the three groups to identify overlapping areas of concern and, most important, devise a collaborative approach to addressing them.
The Great Lakes Commission primarily adopts programs that safeguard the region’s water resources. As the name implies, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission does essentially the same for commercial and recreational fisheries. The International Joint Commission is tasked with fostering peaceful relations between the United States and Canada, which borders on four of the five Great Lakes.
“Policymakers hear a lot from a lot of people,” said Marc Gaden, long-time executive secretary of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. “The more united we are in messaging, the more effective we can be in communicating your needs to the policymakers.
“We all have very different specific missions as outlined in the treaty,” Gaden continued, “but we all share the same objective, and that is doing everything we can to advance Great Lakes restoration, to recommend good policies, to base decisions on science, and to communicate with elected officials on why they need to take the steps that they need to take.”
Some of the challenges the Great Lakes region faces affect all three commissions, including habitat loss, the spread of invasive species, harmful algal blooms and the impacts of climate change.
“Anything that emerges as a stressor or a threat to water quality can serve as a disruptor for things like commercial fishing, recreational fishing, the ability to have commerce, transportation, recreation in our region,” said Heather Stirratt, Great Lakes regional office director for the International Joint Commission.
These commissions have worked together on and off for decades, so this memorandum of agreement is really a first. Now a top priority for all becomes strengthening their joint presence in Washington to ensure that Great Lakes issues are on the national radar, with a focus on shared priorities for restoring the lakes and supporting the region’s economy.
“Restoring and protecting the Great Lakes is an enduring, bipartisan priority for the nation and for all Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin communities,” the group declared. “Our organizations support the following priorities to accelerate progress, foster equity, build resilience, and ensure the Great Lakes are a source of drinking water, an environmental treasure, and an economic engine for North America.”
The group is urging Congress and the Biden administration to:
• capitalize on investments in Great Lakes restoration, including by appropriating no less than $450 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in FY 2025
• ensure water infrastructure investments tackle historic inequities and enhance the Great Lakes’ resiliency to the impacts of climate change
• develop coordinated regional science plans and strengthen Great Lakes ports and the maritime transportation system
• support federal actions to address harmful algal blooms and take action to address emerging contaminants
• protect the Great Lakes basin from Asian carp and other aquatic invasive species
“We need a better understanding of what the future looks like, what it holds, so we can make suitable recommendations to policymakers about what they might do to improve and protect the Great Lakes and its fisheries, and all of the ecosystem services that the Great Lakes provide,” Gaden said.
For the marine industry surrounding the Great Lakes, which accounts for more than a third of overall annual boat sales, advancing protection of these waters is critical for the long haul.
