HR1917-119

What This Bill Does

The Great Lakes Mass Marking Program Act turns an existing limited U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mass-marking effort into a formal program. Congress finds that invasive species, food-web changes, and prey-species declines have made Great Lakes fishery management more difficult; that state and tribal fish managers working through the Council of Lake Committees of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission use mass marking to distinguish hatchery-produced fish from wild fish; that the existing program tags about 9 million to 11 million hatchery-produced fish each year; and that federal, state, and tribal agencies stock about 21 million hatchery-produced fish annually to support native species recovery and recreational and commercial fishing. The bill establishes the Great Lakes Mass Marking Program in USFWS, lets the Director buy equipment, fish tags, data-processing tools, and related items and hire personnel, requires collaboration with federal, state, and tribal fish management agencies, the Council of Lake Committees, and Joint Strategic Plan signatories, and requires program data to be shared with fish managers. It authorizes $2.7 million per year for fiscal years 2026 through 2030.

Who Benefits and How

Great Lakes state fish management agencies in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Wisconsin, tribal fish management agencies, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, the Council of Lake Committees, USFWS fishery staff, fish hatcheries, recreational fisheries, commercial fisheries, tribal fishing communities, fish-tagging equipment manufacturers, and Great Lakes restoration planners benefit from better data on how many stocked fish survive, whether hatchery operations are effective, how stocking affects predator-prey balance, and whether habitat restoration is working.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Great Lakes Mass Marking Program administrators, federal fishery staff, state fish management agencies, tribal fish management agencies, data-processing staff, tag-recovery crews, budget officers, and federal taxpayers must administer the program, coordinate across jurisdictions, purchase fish tags and automated equipment, hire personnel, disseminate data, and fund the $2.7 million annual authorization for five fiscal years.

Key Provisions

• Establishes the Great Lakes Mass Marking Program inside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Authorizes the Director to buy tagging equipment, fish tags, expendable items, and data-processing tools and to hire additional personnel.
• Requires collaboration with federal, state, and tribal fish managers, the Council of Lake Committees, and Joint Strategic Plan signatories.
• Requires collected data to support restoration objectives, predator-prey balance, fisheries economics, and habitat-restoration evaluation.
• Authorizes $2.7 million annually for fiscal years 2026 through 2030.