Fisheries Protection at Water Abstraction Sites

Section 54 of the Fisheries Act requires persons who wish to build dams and weirs or repair existing weirs in rivers to construct fish passes for the free passage of fish. All fish pass designs and specifications must be submitted to the Department for approval before a pass is constructed.

Sections 58 and 59 of the Fisheries Act impose certain closure periods where water is being abstracted from a river or lake to facilitate the passage of fish and require grids and gratings to be placed at water abstractions and return points.

The Fisheries Act also allows the Department to issue exemption certificates from these requirements.  The exemptions are used to introduce more modern fishery protection measures than those imposed by the Fisheries Act, which are outdated and in some cases do not facilitate fish migration to spawning grounds at optimum times.

Since 2005 the Department has continued its review of exemption permits issued under Sections 54, 58 and 59 of the Fisheries Act to ensure that the most appropriate fishery protection measures where included in the permit conditions.