Land use planning: Aquatic habitat protection

Policies

• Policy and guidelines for aquatic habitat management and fish conservation (1.5Mb PDF)
  
  Designed to achieve consistent management of aquatic resources in NSW waters.
• Policy and guidelines for fish friendly waterway crossings (356kb PDF)
  
  A summary of the specific legislation and policy requirements that must be observed by those intending to plan, design and construct waterway crossings in NSW.
• Fish passage requirements for waterway crossings (855kb PDF)
  
  This document aims to minimise impacts on fish passage and general aquatic wildlife by providing practical guidelines to those involved in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of waterway crossings.

Permits

• Permits for activities impacting on aquatic habitats
  
  There are a number of activities impacting on aquatic habitats and species for which you need a permit.

Aquatic threatened species management

• Species protection
  
  Industry & Investment NSW is responsible for all species of fish and marine vegetation.

Plans

• Fish habitat protection plan - general (33kb PDF)
  
  Deals broadly with dredging and reclamation activities, fish passage requirements, the protection of mangroves, seagrasses and other marine vegetation, and the importance of snags.
• Fish habitat protection plan - seagrasses (143kb PDF)
  
  Specific to the protection of seagrasses. The primary objective of this plan is to ensure that there is no net loss of seagrasses within the coastal and estuarine waters of NSW.
• Fish habitat protection plan - Hawkesbury-Nepean river system (174kb PDF)
  
  Recognises the role of total catchment management and integrated management whilst helping authorities to recognise their responsibilities in relation to fish habitat protection.

Regional information

• Fish habitats by NSW catchment
  
  Learn more about the fish habitats in your catchment region, what lives in them and what problems they are facing.
• Distribution maps for native and introduced freshwater fish
  
  A guide to freshwater fish in NSW.
• Analysis of changes to aquatic habitats and adjacent land use in the downstream portion of the Hawkesbury Nepean River over the past sixty years
  
  The catchment of the Hawkesbury River below Warragamba Dam has been subject to urban development, agriculture and recreational use for many decades. Some degradation of terrestrial and aquatic habitats has occurred because of these pressures.