Privatization is the purchase of goods and services from the private sector
by governmental agencies. We conducted a survey to gather information on t
he current status of privatization in state, provincial, and federal agenci
es within the North Central Division of the American Fisheries Society. Mos
t respondents indicated their agencies did contract services and likely wou
ld continue to do so in the future because of budget or personnel constrain
ts. Certain activities such as fish production, specialized research, secon
dary data collection, engineering, computer programming, data entry, creel
surveys, fish removal, and inventory activities were most likely to be cont
racted. However, activities closely related to the central mission (e.g., s
tandardized sampling, data analysis) or the final decision-making process o
f the agency were less likely to be contracted. A consensus among administr
ators was that wide-scale privatization of management activities is counter
to the long-term conservation of fisheries resources.