Native Fish Strategy

The vision of the Native Fish Strategy (NFS) is to ensure that viable fish communities and populations are sustained throughout the rivers of the Murray–Darling Basin. (Click here to the view the Native Fish Strategy or a summary of the strategy.)

The goal of the strategy is to rehabilitate native fish communities in the Basin back to 60% of their estimated pre-European-settlement levels, after 50 years of implementation. The Native Fish Strategy has been in place since 2004. Experts estimated that levels at that time were about 10% of those pre-European-settlement.

Native fish species in the Basin have suffered serious decline in both distribution and abundance since European settlement. A variety of factors have contributed to this decline, including habitat deterioration, predation and competition from alien fish, reduction of water quality, and human-made barriers to fish movement.

The strategy provides guidance for investing funds (but is not a source of funds), and assigning priorities, responsibilities and evaluation procedures for fish research and development programs; on-ground implementation programs; construction programs for fishways; and community education and awareness programs.

For further information on the development and initial implementation of the Native Fish Strategy, see ‘Supporting documents’.

News and events

Native Fish Forum in Albury, 1–2 September

The Murray–Darling Basin Authority is hosting the 2009 Native Fish Forum, on Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 September 2009 at the Albury Entertainment Centre in Swift Street, Albury. The theme for the forum is: ‘A report card after five years of implementation of the Native Fish Strategy — what have we achieved in the early years, and where to next?’ Click on the link to view the forum agenda.

Admission to the forum is free, but places are limited. Please RSVP to kate.scanlon@mdba.gov.au as soon as possible. Participants will need to pay for their own travel and accommodation.

Murray fishways win more praise

The Sea to Hume Dam fishways program has been selected as one of the top 25 Australasian ecological restoration projects by a panel set up by the journal Ecological Management & Restoration. Read more about the successes of the program, and also see the article in our e-letter Basin News.

Native Fish Awareness Week

This year’s Native Fish Awareness Week ran from Monday 25 May to Friday 29 May, and had a focus on northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. Click here for more information from our e-letter Basin News.