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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 941. Findings
The Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) As the human population of the Great Lakes Basin has
expanded to over 35,000,000 people, great demands have been
placed on the lakes for use for boating and other recreation,
navigation, municipal and industrial water supply, waste
disposal, power production, and other purposes. These growing and
often conflicting demands exert pressure on the fish and wildlife
resources of the Great Lakes Basin, including in the form of
contaminants, invasion by nonindigenous species, habitat
degradation and destruction, legal and illegal fishery resource
harvest levels, and sea lamprey predation.
(2) The fishery resources of the Great Lakes support
recreational fisheries enjoyed by more than 5,000,000 people
annually and commercial fisheries providing approximately 9,000
jobs. Together, these fisheries generate economic activity worth
more than $4,400,000,000 annually to the United States.
(3) The availability of a suitable forage base is essential to
lake trout, walleye, yellow perch, and other recreational and
commercially valuable fishery resources of the Great Lakes Basin.
Protecting and restoring productive fish habitat, including by
protecting water quality, is essential to the successful recovery
of Great Lakes Basin fishery resources.
(4) The Great Lakes Basin contains important breeding and
migration habitat for all types of migratory birds. Many
migratory bird species dependent on deteriorating Great Lakes
Basin habitat have suffered serious population declines in recent
years.
(5) Over 80 percent of the original wetlands in the Great Lakes
Basin have been destroyed and such losses continue at a rate of
20,000 acres annually.
(6) Contaminant burdens in the fish and wildlife resources of
the Great Lakes Basin are substantial and the impacts of those
contaminants on the life functions of important fish and wildlife
resources are poorly understood. Concern over the effects of
those contaminants on human health have resulted in numerous
public health advisories recommending restricted or no
consumption of Great Lakes fish.
(7) The lower Great Lakes are uniquely different from the upper
Great Lakes biologically, physically, and in the degree of human
use and shoreline development, and special fishery resource
assessments and management activities are necessary to respond
effectively to these special circumstances.
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