time to successfully sustain themselves, surviving to periods in which favorable environmental conditions arise that allow for booms in reproduction and subsequent recruitment. Management of bigmouth buffalo is thus in dire need of change, especially in the northern part of their US range where populations are old-growth and declining; harvest remains unlimited and unmanaged, and night bowfishing has been growing as a significant sport fishery with increasingly-efficient technologies of the 21st century. Geographic distribution The bigmouth buffalo's native distribution is confined to the countries of Canada and the United States of America. It is native to the Red River of the North and Mississippi River drainage basins, from Manitoba, Canada, and North Dakota, United States, to the Ohio River and south in the Mississippi River system to Texas and Alabama. In Canada, they inhabit the Milk River which flows through Alberta, and the Qu'Appelle River which flows through Saskatchewan and Manitoba into Lake Winnipeg. Beginning in the northern United States, they are native to Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and down to southern states including eastern Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The major systems where they are found include the Hudson Bay and Mississippi River drainages. The introduction of bigmouth buffalo has largely been done for commercial purposes. Regions of reintroductions include some reservoirs along the Missouri River drainage of North Dakota and Montana. Regions of introduction include some reservoirs in Arizona, and within California, they have also been introduced to the aqueduct system of Los Angeles. Ecological, cultural, and economic importance Native to North America, bigmouth buffalo are integral to ecosystems therein. Bigmouth buffalo young are prey for several predatory fish, including walleye, northern pike, catfish, alligator gar, etc. Bigmouth buffalo filter-feed on invasive zebra mussels during the mollusk's larval (veliger) planktonic stage. They form the native counterpart to the invasive bighead and silver carp, and they compete with the invasive common carp. However, these invasive species are outcompeting native bigmouth buffalo. Native Americans utilized bigmouth buffalo, Lewis and Clark harvested them on their journey in 1804, and the inland commercial fishing industry has valued them as a prized catch since the 1800s. The bigmouth buffalo is a popular foodfish throughout the United States, and has been introduced into a few southwestern states. Commercial harvesters have to obtain annual permits to net from designated waterbodies, which are rotated among on a year-by-year basis, and they must report harvest from each