The historical context of current environmental conditions offers vital guidance to North American fisheries professionals as they strive to develop effective management plans and policies. Through this retrospective we highlight the remarkable historic fisheries resources and reasons for establishing public fisheries agencies and the American Fisheries Society (AFS). Through a review of primary historical documents and literature for North America, this paper identifies factors contributing to the founding of AFS and public fish commissions; shows how selected resource issues evolved; and documents how and why selected fisheries and aquatic habitat policies changed in response to those issues. Overexploitation, landscape‐scale habitat alterations, mining, and dams were the causative agents for emergence of fisheries agencies and AFS, and these factors remain relevant today. Beginning in the 1960s, after 100 years of policy inaction, North Americans grew tired of degraded waters and fisheries and forced policy changes that have directly and indirectly affected the fisheries we manage today. The historical events and resulting corrective legislation are taken for granted by those unaware that AFS has actively participated in developing policies to address these environmental harms. Further, AFS continues to play a vital role in identifying key issues, providing conduits for information to cope with impairments, and advocating for policies to conserve intact habitats and improve degraded systems. The struggles documented in this paper offer crucial lessons as we continue to be challenged by legacy resource issues and face emerging environmental stressors, such as climate change, as well as regression in long‐standing environmental protection policies.

中文翻译：

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通过时间追踪渔业：美国渔业学会的历史镜头

当前环境条件的历史背景为北美渔业专业人士努力制定有效的管理计划和政策提供了重要的指导。通过这次回顾，我们强调了非凡的历史渔业资源以及建立公共渔业机构和美国渔业协会（AFS）的原因。通过回顾北美的主要历史文献和文献，本文确定了促成AFS和公共鱼类委员会成立的因素。显示选定的资源问题如何演变；并记录了针对这些问题而改变的某些渔业和水生栖息地政策的方式和原因。过度开发，景观规模的栖息地变化，采矿和水坝是导致渔业机构和AFS出现的原因，这些因素在今天仍然适用。从1960年代开始，经过100年的无作为政策，北美人民对水质和渔业的退化以及强制性的政策变化直接或间接影响了我们今天管理的渔业感到厌倦。那些没有意识到AFS积极参与制定解决这些环境危害的政策的人认为历史事件和由此产生的纠正性立法是理所当然的。此外，AFS在确定关键问题，提供信息渠道以应对损害以及倡导保护自然栖息地和改善退化系统的政策方面继续发挥至关重要的作用。本文所记录的斗争提供了重要的教训，因为我们继续受到遗留资源问题的挑战，并面临着新兴的环境压力，例如气候变化，