Measures to Avoid Causing Harm to Fish and Fish Habitat

If you are conducting a project near water, it is your responsibility to ensure you avoid causing serious harm to fish in compliance with the Fisheries Act. The following advice will help you avoid causing harm and comply with the Act.

PLEASE NOTE: This advice applies to all project types and replaces all “Operational Statements” previously produced by DFO for different project types in all regions.

Measures

• Time work in water to respect timing windows to protect fish, including their eggs, juveniles, spawning adults and/or the organisms upon which they feed.

• Minimize duration of in-water work.

• Conduct instream work during periods of low flow, or at low tide, to further reduce the risk to fish and their habitat or to allow work in water to be isolated from flows.

• Schedule work to avoid wet, windy and rainy periods that may increase erosion and sedimentation.

• Design and plan activities and works in waterbody such that loss or disturbance to aquatic habitat is minimized and sensitive spawning habitats are avoided.

• Design and construct approaches to the waterbody such that they are perpendicular to the watercourse to minimize loss or disturbance to riparian vegetation.

• Avoid building structures on meander bends, braided streams, alluvial fans, active floodplains or any other area that is inherently unstable and may result in erosion and scouring of the stream bed or the built structures.

• Undertake all instream activities in isolation of open or flowing water to maintain the natural flow of water downstream and avoid introducing sediment into the watercourse.

• Plan activities near water such that materials such as paint, primers, blasting abrasives, rust solvents, degreasers, grout, or other chemicals do not enter the watercourse.

• Develop a response plan that is to be implemented immediately in the event of a sediment release or spill of a deleterious substance and keep an emergency spill kit on site.

• Ensure that building material used in a watercourse has been handled and treated in a manner to prevent the release or leaching of substances into the water that may be deleterious to fish.