STUDYING AND MANAGING GREAT RIVER FISHERIES:  THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER 
EXPERIENCE

Brian S. Ickes1, and James Garvey2

1US Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center, La Crosse, 
WI
2Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL

The largest rivers on Earth, herein termed Great Rivers, are notoriously 
difficult to study and manage, yet represent a nexus of freshwater fish 
diversity on the planet.  Future conservation of freshwater fish diversity on 
the planet will depend, in large part, on the effectiveness of Great River 
research and the efficacy of Great River management.  In our paper, we will 
discuss issues that challenge and presently constrain effective Great River 
fisheries research and management.  In doing so, we will use the Upper 
Mississippi River as a case study given its status as perhaps the best 
studied and most intensively engineered Great River in the world.  Our 
presentation will begin with a retrospective, time-sequenced history (> 100 
years) of fishery research topics, research methods, and management 
techniques used in the basin.  We will follow this with a presentation of 
selected contemporary case studies that pose vexing, yet pressing, research 
and management challenges.  Finally, we will discuss future directions in 
Great River fisheries research and management. 

Keywords:  Mississippi River, Illinois River, fisheries research, fisheries 
management