(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 2025, there is authorized to be appropriated $15,000,000 to carry out this section.