16 U.S.C. § 757a — Anadromous, Great Lakes, and Lake Champlain fisheries

(a) Conservation, development, and enhancement; cooperative agreements; costs. The Secretary of the Interior may make cooperative agreements with one or more States, together or separately, and when appropriate with other non-Federal interests. The purpose is to conserve, develop, and improve the Nation’s anadromous fishery resources within the States when water-resource development or other causes can reduce them, or when international agreements create United States conservation commitments. It also covers fish in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain that travel up streams to spawn.

Each agreement must describe—(1) what the Secretary and cooperating parties will do; (2) the benefits expected for the States and other non-Federal interests; (3) the estimated cost; (4) the Federal and non-Federal shares of the cost; (5) the agreement’s term; (6) how real or personal property acquired by the Secretary will be disposed of during or at the end of the term; and (7) other terms and conditions the Secretary considers desirable. Except as subsection (c) provides, the Federal share, including operation and maintenance costs of facilities the Secretary builds under sections 757a–757f that the Secretary annually determines are properly Federal costs, may not exceed 50 percent of those costs. The value of Federal land is excluded from that calculation. The non-Federal share may be money or real or personal property valued by the Secretary.

(b) Operation, management, and administration of property; research. (1) The Secretary may make agreements with States for operating facilities and managing and administering lands or interests in land acquired, or facilities built, under sections 757a–757f. (2) While carrying out responsibilities under this section, the Secretary must conduct, promote, and encourage research to prepare for using ecosystem and interspecies approaches to conserving and managing anadromous and Great Lakes fishery resources.

(c) Increase of Federal share. (1) If two or more States with a common interest in a basin jointly make an agreement with the Secretary under subsection (a) for a research and development program to conserve, develop, and improve the covered fish, the Federal share of the program costs shall be increased to a maximum of 66⅔ percent. Here, “basin” includes rivers and tributaries, lakes, and other bodies of water or parts of them. (2) If a State has put into effect an interstate fishery-management plan for anadromous fishery resources prepared by an interstate commission, the Federal share of a grant under this section for activities required by that plan may be up to 90 percent. “Interstate commission” means—(A) the commission created by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Compact, as approved by Public Law 80–77 on May 4, 1942 (56 Stat. 267); (B) the commission created by the Pacific Marine Fisheries Compact, as approved by Public Law 80–232 on July 24, 1947 (16 Stat. 419); or (C) the commission created by the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Compact, as approved by Public Law 81–66 on May 19, 1949 (63 Stat. 70).