February 9, 1871

President Ulysses S. Grant signed a joint resolution of the Forty-first Congress directing the government to ascertain “whether any diminution in the number of food fishes of the coast and lakes of the United States has taken place; and, if so, to what causes the same is due; and also whether any and what protective, prohibitory, or precautionary measures should be adopted in the premises.” This resolution caused the formation of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the administration of the Department of the Interior.