This article makes a comprehensive survey of the concept of fish and wildlife mitigation, with emphasis placed upon its utility as a tool in estuarine management. Initial portions deal with the establishment of a framework which serves as a standard upon which to evaluate the conceptual integrity of potential mitigation efforts. Latter portions apply this conceptual framework to a series of alternative approaches to estuarine mitigation and to policy now emerging within the federal regulatory regime. Conclusions are reached concerning the viability of these approaches and of emerging policy. A major conclusion of the paper is that the lack of formal mitigation policy, which has characterized the federal regulatory process, has given estuarine mitigation an often deserved reputation as a cumbersome and arbitrary regulatory burden. Applied as a positive management strategy, mitigation can be a powerful tool; however, development of a conceptually sound policy foundation is a prerequisite of superlative importance. This paper addresses many of the problems involved in developing and implementing such policy.1