Fish Habitat Monitoring

Fish habitat monitoring programs normally fall into three general categories: 

  • Compliance Monitoring
  • Effectiveness Monitoring
  • Environmental Effects Monitoring

Fish Habitat Compliance Monitoring

  • Monitoring to ensure conformance with legisaltion, regulations, policies, etc.
  • Monitoring to ensure conformance with terms and conditions of regulatory approvals
  • Normally undertaken during project implementation
  • Follow-up monitoring may be undertaken to ensure that fish habitat mitigation and fish habitat compensation works continue in their intended form and function

Effectiveness Monitoring

  • Monitoring to ensure that fish habitat mitigation and fish habitat compensation measures are successful in achieving their intended effect
  • Monitoring to ensure that fish habitat compensation measures are successful in achieving their intended effect

Environmental Effects Monitoring

  • Monitoring to measure the overall effects of a project on fish habitat, taking into account mitigation and compensation measures
  • Can include cumulative effects monitoring
  • Examples of cumulative effects monitoring programs are presented below:

RAMP Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program - Oil Sands Region of northeastern Alberta

Jones, N.E., W.M. Tonn, G.J. Scrimgeour and C. Katapodis. 2003. Productive capacity of an artificial stream in the Canadian Arctic: assessing the effectiveness of fish habitat compensation.  Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 60: 849-863.

Packman, G.A., D. Harper, S. Samis and D. Lampi.  Review of approaches for estimating changes in productive capacity from whole lake / stream destruction and related compensation projects. Canadian Technical Report on Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.

Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership. 2004. Columbia River Estuary Habitat Monitoring Plan.

Packman, G.A. and Associates and Winsby Environmental Services.  2006. Selection and Use of Indicators to Measure the Habitat Status of Wild Pacific Salmon. Prepared for Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council.

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