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Home  Infocentre Policy and Legislation FHM Policy
Chapter 3
Integrated Planning for Fish Habitat Management
The net gain objective and three supporting goals of
this policy are being implemented by a series of strategies that are outlined in the
following chapter. In addition to this, improved integration is needed to ensure that the
fish habitat plans are implemented with sufficient knowledge of the current and future
demands of other natural resource users. This can be accomplished by utilizing existing
processes and continuing to develop regularized procedures as required, in close
cooperation with provinces, territories and other sectors engaged in resource utilization
and management, to consult and plan for future resource management and use.
Furthermore, it will not be sufficient to proceed with policy implementation without
fully integrating fish habitat requirements with management objectives for the fisheries
resources. This will allow meaningful priorities to be established and will lead to more
credible delivery of all elements of the fisheries management program
This chapter outlines the conceptual approaches that must be tested, implemented and
further developed to allow for the fuller integration of fish habitat management in
multiple resource management decisions.
The Department recognizes that natural resource interests such as the forest, fishing,
mining, energy, and agricultural sectors make legitimate demands on water resources, and
that ways must be found to reconcile differences of opinion on the best use of those
resources. Effective integration of resource sector objectives, including fisheries, will
therefore involve cooperation and consultation with other government agencies and natural
resource users. For example, fish habitat management plans on a local or regional basis
should be developed in such a way as to allow discussion with other stakeholders. In
particular, in those jurisdictions where the Department of Fisheries and Oceans manages
fisheries directly, the Department will seek ways to participate in the resource planning
and management initiatives of provincial, territorial and municipal governments, other
federal departments and other resource users where applicable. In other jurisdictions,
integrated planning activities will be consistent with any federal-provincial
administrative agreement for habitat management. Examples of initiatives in which the
Department has been involved in recent years include (a) planning for multiple land and
water use in a number of west coast estuaries and in the Nicola River Basin in British
Columbia; (b) planning for port development on the east and west coasts; (c) planning for
resource use in Passamoquoddy Bay, New Brunswick; (d) preparation for Northern Land Use
Planning in the territories; and (e) implementation of coastal fisheries/forestry
guidelines in British Columbia.
In this way, and in keeping with the integrated
resource planning strategy described in the next chapter, fish habitat management
plans will be reviewed and discussed, and, where possible, integrated with the objectives
and plans of other resource managers and users.
The essential step of integrating various fish habitat requirements with the fisheries resources they support, must be
undertaken and made available in a form that is understood by officials within Fisheries
and Oceans, as well as by other agencies and non-government groups. The Department has
explored the conceptual basis for this integration and has concluded that fish habitat
management area plans or fish habitat/stock production plans, or the equivalent, should be
developed to guide the implementation of this policy.
These plans would be relatively straightforward to implement if fish stock production
objectives and allocation plans were available for all of the nation's important fisheries
resources. While this information is commonly available from the responsible fisheries
agency, or can be developed by that agency, it is not always possible for fisheries
managers to either identify discrete fish stocks for allocation purposes or to quantify
production targets for stocks and geographic areas.
Given the above factors, the integration of fish habitat requirements with fisheries
management objectives to reflect the important supporting role played by the habitat
program could be developed in a variety of ways. The method used will depend on the
information available on fish production from particular areas and on the complexity of
fish harvesting for mixed stocks. If both the stocks and the fisheries are discrete, it
should be possible to derive production targets on which to base habitat management plans
that would support the maintenance and growth of those fisheries in particular areas.
A different approach will have to be taken where the fish produced in particular areas
contribute to a mixed-stock fishery. In such instances, where stock-specific fish
production targets cannot be provided by fisheries managers, estimates of those targets
may be based on habitat availability, its quality, any competing pre-emptive uses and
historic fish production levels. This will form the basis for the fish habitat management plan for that
geographic area.
The plans developed in this way will be used to define those priority areas where this
habitat policy will apply and to assist the Department in its efforts to measure program
performance. In addition, the habitat management plans will be used as the basis for
discussion with other resource managers and users, during the integration process
described in the preceding section.
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