Opening NSW's waterways to bring back the fish

Most coastal freshwater fish species depend on being able to travel freely along waterways for their survival, but human urbanisation has put a few obstacles in their way.

Now a group of Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) along the NSW coast are working to give back to native fish the freedom they need.

"About 70 per cent of coastal freshwater fish species in southeastern Australia migrate to complete their life cyles, including Australian Bass, Jollytails, Eastern Freshwater Cod, and Macquarie Perch," said Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Conservation Manager, Scott Nichols.

"These migrations are vital to their survival, and barriers make it more difficult for them to access a greater range of environments so they can breed, avoid predators, access food and find shelter.

"Many barriers prevent native fish from travelling along our waterways. We hope to reconnect these streams to enable fish to move freely."

Funding

Recently the Australian Government provided the Sydney Metropolitan, and Southern Rivers CMAs with more than $3.1 million for two projects to help bring back native fish to NSW's coastal waterways.

The State Government, NSW Environmental Trust and local councils also support the work.

Activities

The first project - a Sydney Metropolitan CMA initiative - gave Scott plenty of exercise, as he walked beside the waterways to identify every barrier along the rivers and creeks.

"We reviewed all the barriers in the area, including roads, weirs, water delivery pipes, sewerage pipes, sandbags, basically anything that would keep fish on one side or the other," Scott said.

"We then prioritised in terms of those that were redundant and could easily be removed, and those that could be modified to allow fish access."

This process was then extended to all other coastal CMAs, with NSW Department of Primary Industries identifying problem road and weir structures.

Achievements

Scott said now a list of structures had been completed for all coastal waterways of NSW, the next step was to start removing barriers and installing fish passages on barriers that could not be removed.

"We've already been able to bring many stakeholders together to discuss the issues, including commercial and recreational fishers, and the response has been very positive," he said.

"We're now in the process of approaching councils because it's about working together - not us telling people to fix their structures. The final site choice will be made through a steering committee comprising community and agency representatives.

"We're hoping that by the time the project is completed, we'll open more than 1,000 kilometres of stream to fish within the coastal waterways of NSW."

More information

1. Scott Nichols, NSW DPI: (02) 9764 3067 or scott.nichols@dpi.nsw.gov.au
2. Judy Christie, Sydney Metropolitan CMA (02) 9895 7753 or judy.christie@cma.nsw.gov.au

Australian Government NRM Team
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
1800 552 008 (toll-free)

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Caring for our Country is an Australian Government initiative jointly administered by the Australian Government departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts