THE NSW Government is undertaking a risk assessment of recreational fishing in Sydney water supply dams, including Cataract Dam and Prospect Reservoir.
According to an article in the NSW Recfisher newsletter, the DPI Minister requested in 2016 that DPI Fisheries assess the risk of recreational fishing in water supply reservoirs and other associated restricted areas that are currently closed to the public,
In October 2016, the Minister approved DPI’s proposal to establish a Working Group to develop specifications for engagement of a specialist supplier to undertake a risk assessment on recreational fishing opportunities in these restricted areas.
Funding has been sourced from the Recreational Fishing Trusts to undertake and report on a risk assessment and identified risk treatments. The project will be managed by DPI Fisheries and overseen by a Project Working Group comprising DPI Fisheries, DPI Water and Key Stakeholders.
The project seeks to deliver a detailed assessment of potential risks associated with a wide range of recreational fishing activities in water supply dams (including Sydney water supply storages) that are currently closed to fishing. Opening access to dams with favourable recreational fishing attributes, with appropriate risk treatments and mitigating strategies, will greatly improve recreational fishing opportunities and deliver a range of social and economic benefits across NSW.
DPI Fisheries and the Project Working Group have undertaken an initial screening of possible dams and water storages to identify the two candidate storages for the risk assessment. The nominated storages to be assessed under this project are Cataract Dam and Prospect Reservoir.
The risk assessment will include a literature review, site inspections and key stakeholder engagement to identify the threats, aspects/attributes, hazards, impacts of allowing recreational fishing access to the selected dams, assessment of risks and identification of possible treatments and a final report to the Minister around the end of 2017.
Channel 9 also reported on this issue – you can watch their report below.
