Part A: Ensuring Fish For The Future

1. What is "fish habitat"?

To conserve fish for the future, it is critical to protect the natural systems that produce the fish as well as manage a sustainable fisheries harvest. These systems are referred to as "fish habitat," and include a great variety of environments where fish live. The Fisheries Act defines "fish habitat" as:

"Spawning grounds and nursery, rearing, food supply and migration areas on which fish depend directly or indirectly in order to carry out their life processes." (Section 34(1))

Fish habitat includes not only the water in rivers, lakes, streams and oceans, and the quality of that water; fish habitat also includes surrounding plants, life forms, and structures such as gravel beds and large woody debris that interact to make fish life possible. The federal Fisheries Act protects natural and man-made fish habitat, such as a drainage ditch that has become frequented by fish.

2. Why protect fish habitat?

No fish habitat means no fish. Many people, however, do not automatically recognize the value of fish habitat. The public will readily support protection for a scenic river valley. But a muddy tidal flat, which is also fish habitat, is more likely to be dredged, paved or otherwise destroyed without any public recognition of significant economic and social loss. Fish habitat is a vital asset to Canadians - in fact, money in the bank. Habitat is essential to the survival of fish and is the bedrock of our recreational, aboriginal and commercial fisheries. Habitat is as essential to those industries as topsoil is to farming.

3. What activities damage habitat?

Unfortunately, fish habitat can be destroyed without much visible evidence. For example, the eggs of salmon and trout cannot survive just anywhere; they must be laid in streams where there is a bed of gravel. Take away the gravel and the stream will flow as before, but it will not be a spawning stream. Any project that upsets the physical, chemical and biological balance of fish habitat may permanently damage it, causing social and economic loss to fisheries. Common threats to fish habitat are associated with:

• Removing streamside vegetation
• Removing sand or gravel from beaches, riverbanks or streambeds
• Diverting, diking and channelizing streams
• Dredging tidal flats, marshland or for deep-sea ports
• Filling foreshore, marshes and floodplains
• Clearing land for agriculture or urban development
• Building causeways, wharves, marinas and reservoirs
• Polluting with sediment, pesticides, oil and other contaminants
• Discharging industrial and municipal waste
• Logging and log storage
• Constructing buildings, pipelines, transmission lines, roads and railways
• Constructing and operating hydroelectric power facilities
• Mining and discharging mine effluent
• Mining the seabed and accidents at offshore oil and gas extraction facilities

4. How do I comply with the law?

If you are planning work that may harm or pollute fish habitat, you should contact the local DFO office. The Department will require the following information regarding the project:

• plans and specifications
• potential impacts on fish habitat
• proposed measures to prevent impacts on fish habitat by employing responsible development methods, government guidelines, or professional advice

If you applied for a government permit to conduct the work, ensure that your project has been referred to DFO for review. In some cases, DFO may require an inspection and provide written comments on the project.

More information on preventing impacts on fish habitat is available in "Guidelines for Attaining No Net Loss" and other Publications, Reports and Guidelines. You can find the nearest DFO office on the map at www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/English/offices.htm; or call the number below and ask to speak with a local habitat management biologist:

Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Oceans, Habitat and Enhancement Branch
Regional Headquarters
Vancouver BC
Telephone (604) 666-6614

You must amend your plans to prevent harm to fish habitat before commencing work. It is your responsibility to obtain technical advice and make the necessary changes. The steps to prevent damage to fish habitat, in order of preference, are:

1. Avoid the damage by redesigning or relocating the project.
2. Minimize the damage by employing guidelines or technical advice in redesign. Advice from DFO staff does not authorize harm to fish habitat. You must apply for a section 35(2) Authorization if your project will harm fish habitat.
3. Apply to DFO for a section 35(2) Authorization. These Authorizations are not issued unless the person or company proposing the project replaces destroyed fish habitat. More information about Section 35(2) Authorizations is provided in: " What the Law Requires."
4. Abandon the proposed project.

If you proceed with a project that harms fish habitat without proper authorization from DFO, you will be liable for prosecution under the Fisheries Act.