About Habitat Highlights

Fish need suitable places to live, feed and reproduce, and they need to freely migrate between different habitats at different stages of their life-cycle. Lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, wetlands and riparian areas, as well as coastal, estuarine and marine areas provide important habitat for fish and other aquatic species.

Fish and their diverse aquatic habitats face a broad range of threats, including the degradation and modification of natural habitat, aquatic invasive species, overfishing, pollution and climate change.

This series of Habitat Highlights aims to explore and champion the ways that DFO collaborates with partners, Indigenous Peoples and stakeholder communities to protect fish and fish habitat.

Each of these reports examines one or more threats to fish and fish habitat in a specific geographic area of Canada, with a primary focus on freshwater ecosystems (lakes, rivers, wetlands). Each report is structured differently and uses different storytelling techniques and styles. We hope this variety in structure and content will offer something for everyone, and that any reader from student to seasoned environmental professional can discover something they didn’t know before.

The overall goal of these reports is to ignite curiosity in fish and fish habitat and help to foster a culture of stewardship for Canada’s shared aquatic resources.

Current Habitat Highlights:

• Fish, floods and habitat connectivity in the Lower Fraser (BC)
• Overview of threats to fish and fish habitat in the watersheds of Nova Scotia
  • Assessing aquatic connectivity in Nova Scotia
  • Managing aquatic invasive species in Nova Scotia watersheds
  • Addressing the acidification of watersheds in Nova Scotia
• Overview of threats to fish and fish habitat in the watersheds of Newfoundland and Labrador
  • Reconnecting aquatic habitat to improve fish passage (Newfoundland and Labrador)
  • Restoring fish habitat in Newfoundland and Labrador, with a Placentia Bay case study