NSW Fish Passage Strategy core objectives
The Task Force recommended an initial five-year implementation program (Phase 1) for the Strategy that proposed fish passage remediation at 47 of the highest priority sites in NSW. Phase 1 provides a strategic, cost-effective framework to achieve the Strategy's core objectives:
Ecological
- Improve native fish access to over 4,770 km of mainstem rivers and key off-channel habitat (e.g. Menindee Lakes).
- Mitigate the impacts of future fish kills by allowing fish to move into areas of improved water quality and security
- Double native fish numbers in connected catchments, with particular attention to threatened and recreationally important species such as Murray Cod, Golden Perch, and Silver Perch.
Economic
- Facilitate improved forward capital planning and investment in the State’s Water Security assets, primarily in Westerns NSW, while simultaneously alleviating the financial pressure on water industry participants and weir asset owners who have existing and future legislative obligations to address fish passage under the Fisheries Management Act 1994.
- Maximise the financial benefits to Western NSW communities through construction and infrastructure investment and increased regional tourism through enhanced recreational fisheries.
- Realise significant cost efficiencies in fishway design and construction delivery.
- Maximise Commonwealth investments in fish passage under the Basin Plan.
Social
- Improve the health and wellbeing of the NSW community, particularly for the 850,000 recreational fishers in NSW, Aboriginal communities who hold cultural links to rivers for food and sharing of culture, regional economies that benefit directly from recreational fishing and nature-based tourism, and intrinsic and bequest values held by the broader community.
More information
Contact the Fish Passage Unit to learn more about the NSW Fish Passage Strategy via the email address below.