S. 2880 — Great Lakes Mass Marking Program Act of 2025

This section states congressional findings that rapid changes in the Great Lakes due to aquatic invasive species, food web alterations, and decreased prey abundance necessitate a collaborative, science-based fishery management program; that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's mass marking program—initiated in 2010 and annually tagging 9,000,000 to 11,000,000 hatchery-produced fish stocked basinwide by federal, state, and tribal agencies—is essential to balancing hatchery and wild fish populations, evaluating hatchery effectiveness, and informing management decisions; and that the Great Lakes support a regional economy valued at more than $7,000,000,000.

This section defines key terms used in the Act, including "Director" as the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and "Program" as the Great Lakes Mass Marking Program established by section 4(a).

This section establishes within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the Great Lakes Mass Marking Program to mass mark hatchery-produced fish in the Great Lakes basin, assisting in evaluating hatchery operations and fisheries management actions. The program authorizes the Service director to purchase equipment, tags, and related items and to hire personnel; requires collaboration with federal, state, and tribal fish management agencies, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and Joint Strategic Plan signatories; and directs the Service to make collected data available to those entities to support management outcomes, Great Lakes restoration objectives (including fish community goals), predator-prey balance, fisheries economics, and habitat restoration evaluation.