The key to clean water and sustainable fisheries is to follow nine guiding principles of water management, says a team of Canadian biologists.
Fish habitats need ecosystems that are rich in food with places to hide from predators and lay eggs, according to the framework published today in the journal Environmental Reviews.
Humans have put key freshwater ecosystems at risk because of land development and the loss of the vegetation along rivers and streams, says John Richardson, a professor in the Dept. of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia, one of 15 freshwater biologists who created the framework to help protect fish and ecosystems into the future.
"Fish are strongly impacted when nutrients, sediments or pollutants are added to their habitat. We cannot protect fish without maintaining a healthy freshwater ecosystem," says Richardson, who led the policy section on protecting fish habitats. Other policy sections addressed areas such as climate change and biodiversity.
Connecting waterways are also critical for healthy ecosystems, says Richardson. "If fish can't get to breeding or rearing areas because of dams, culverts, water intakes or other changes to their habitats, then the population will not survive," he says.
With more pressure on Canada's freshwater ecosystems, Richardson and his colleagues wanted to create a framework of evidence-based principles that managers, policy makers and others could easily use in their work. "It's a made in Canada solution, but the principles could be applied anywhere in the world," he says.
BACKGROUNDER
Healthy freshwater ecosystems are shrinking and reports suggest that the animals that depend on them are becoming endangered or extinct at higher rates than marine or terrestrial species, says Richardson. Humans also depend on these ecosystems for basic resources like clean drinking water and food as well as economic activity from the natural resource sector, tourism and more.
The components of a successful management plan include:
These recommendations are based on nine principles of ecology:
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