Fisheries Act updates to better protect fish and fish habitat

The modernized Fisheries Act will strengthen our ability to protect fish and their habitat.

What’s changed in the Fisheries Act

The modernized Fisheries Act will restore lost protections and incorporate modern safeguards that will help protect fish and their habitat. The fish and fish habitat protection provisions will officially come into force in the coming months. With these provisions in place, the Act will:

• provide protection for all fish and fish habitats
• restore the prohibition against ‘harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat’
• prohibit activities, other than fishing, that cause ‘the death of fish’.
• strengthen the role of Indigenous peoples in project reviews, monitoring and policy development
• promote restoration of degraded habitats
• allow for better management of large and small projects impacting fish and fish habitat through a new permitting framework and codes of practice
• provide improved protection of fish and/or fish habitats that are sensitive, highly productive, rare or unique
• consider the cumulative effects of development activities on fish and fish habitat
• establish a new requirement to make information on project decisions public through an online registry

Effects of the changes

These changes to the Fisheries Act give us increased oversight of development activities and the management of fish and fish habitat. This increased oversight will:

• increase certainty for project proponents
• foster stronger partnerships for restoration, planning and cooperative arrangements
• encourage modern, responsible and balanced approaches for managing threats to fish and fish habitat
• improve transparency around authorizations under the Act for projects with impacts on fish and fish habitat

Related information

• Protecting biodiversity and addressing threats
• Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples
• Supporting independent fishers
• Better management of projects
• Restoring habitat and rebuilding fish stocks