republic-os/legal/us/code/title-16/chapter-15b/section-941h.md

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LegalText	16 U.S.C. § 941h	Great Lakes monitoring, assessment, science, and research	us	united_states_code	code_section	16	CONSERVATION	15B	GREAT LAKES FISH AND WILDLIFE RESTORATION	941h	16 U.S.C. § 941h	current	119-100	2026-06-26	official	https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc16@119-100.zip	/us/usc/t16/s941h	data/legal/raw/us/code/title-16/usc16.xml	88f074ab99f75687fc576a79aeacddecce7fc10fbd274b660517707dadd0404a	7be8950da5a93cac7c98e4576ce00340f2aba5e8e46d29915382c203c421d503	f75d607fb1d546b0d95c6e328a815e94c068fe29200d01123a4e5e89d74c9686	2026-07-04	official	legal us-code

16 U.S.C. § 941h - Great Lakes monitoring, assessment, science, and research

Text

(a) Definitions In this section:

(1) Director The term “Director” means the Director of the United States Geological Survey.

(2) Great Lakes Basin The term “Great Lakes Basin” means the air, land, water, and living organisms in the United States within the drainage basin of the Saint Lawrence River at and upstream from the point at which such river and the Great Lakes become the international boundary between Canada and the United States.

(b) Findings Congress finds the following:

(1) The Great Lakes support a diverse ecosystem, on which the vibrant and economically valuable Great Lakes fisheries depend.

(2) To continue successful fisheries management and coordination, as has occurred since signing of the Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries between the United States and Canada on September 10, 1954, management of the ecosystem and its fisheries require sound, reliable science, and the use of modern scientific technologies.

(3) Fisheries research is necessary to support multi-jurisdictional fishery management decisions and actions regarding recreational and sport fishing, commercial fisheries, tribal harvest, allocation decisions, and fish stocking activities.

(4) President Richard Nixon submitted, and the Congress approved, Reorganization Plan No. 4 (84 Stat. 2090), conferring science activities and management of marine fisheries to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

(5) Reorganization Plan No. 4 expressly excluded fishery research activities within the Great Lakes from the transfer, retaining management and scientific research duties within the already-established jurisdictions under the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries, including those of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Department of the Interior.

(c) Monitoring, assessment, science, and research (1) In general The Director may conduct monitoring, assessment, science, and research, in support of the binational fisheries within the Great Lakes Basin.

(2) Specific authorities The Director shall, under paragraph (1)—

(A) execute a comprehensive, multi-lake, freshwater fisheries science program;

(B) coordinate with and work cooperatively with regional, State, tribal, and local governments; and

(C) consult with other interested entities groups, including academia and relevant Canadian agencies.

(3) Included research To properly serve the needs of fisheries managers, monitoring, assessment, science, and research under this section may include—

(A) deepwater ecosystem sciences;

(B) biological and food-web components;

(C) fish movement and behavior investigations;

(D) fish population structures;

(E) fish habitat investigations;

(F) invasive species science;

(G) use of existing, new, and experimental biological assessment tools, equipment, vessels, other scientific instrumentation and laboratory capabilities necessary to support fishery management decisions; and

(H) studies to assess impacts on Great Lakes Fishery resources.

(4) Savings clause Nothing in this section is intended or shall be construed to impede, supersede, or alter the authority of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, States, and Indian tribes under the Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries between the United States of America and Canada on September 10, 1954, and the Great Lakes Fishery Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 931 et seq.).

(d) Authorization of appropriations For each of fiscal years 2021 through 2030, there is authorized to be appropriated $15,000,000 to carry out this section.

(Pub. L. 116–94, div. P, title II, § 201, Dec. 20, 2019, 133 Stat. 3184; Pub. L. 119–67, § 2, Dec. 26, 2025, 139 Stat. 1993.)

Notes

Editorial Notes

References in TextReorganization Plan No. 4, referred to in subsec. (b)(4), (5), probably means Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1970, which is set out as a note under section 1511 of title 15, Commerce and Trade, and in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. The Great Lakes Fishery Act of 1956, referred to in subsec. (c)(4), is act June 4, 1956, ch. 358, 70 Stat. 242, which is classified generally to chapter 15A (§ 931 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 931 of this title and Tables.

Codification Section was enacted as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, and not as part of the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act of 1990 which comprises this chapter.

Amendments2025—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 119–67 substituted “2030” for “2025”.