The Water Framework Directive and Fish
“Water is not a commercial product like any other but rather a heritage which must be protected, defended and treated as such”
What is the Water Framework Directive (WFD)?
- The WFD came into force in the EU in December 2000 and was incorporated into Irish law by regulations in December 2003.
- The WFD establishes a legal framework for the protection and management of water resources throughout the EU.
What are the main objectives of the WFD?
- To protect and maintain “high and good status” of all waters where it exists
- Prevent any deterioration in the existing status of waters
- Restore all waters that are impaired so that they achieve at least “good status” by 2015.
- The WFD is being managed at local level by River Basin Districts (RBDs)
- These objectives will be achieved through the development of River Basin Management Plans and monitoring.
Why monitor?
- The WFD calls for the protection and restoration of clean water across Europe.
- A key step in this process is for Member States to assess the health of their surface waters through national monitoring programmes.
- Monitoring is the main tool used by Member States to classify the status of each water body (section of a river or other surface water)
- The WFD sets a 5 class scale (high, good, moderate, poor and bad status)
- Once Member States have determined the current status of their water bodies, monitoring then helps Member States to track the effectiveness of measures needed to clean up water bodies and achieve good status.
What does the WFD monitor?
- WFD will monitor water chemistry, fish, algae, insects, plankton, plants and habitat.
- WFD will also monitor human impacts on hydromorphology (i.e. the physical shape of river systems).
Who will monitor fish for the WFD?
- The Central and Regional Fisheries Boards have been assigned the task for delivering information on fish stocks.
- Fish are an indicator of water quality. Healthy fish stocks indicate good water quality.
- All EU countries are required to examine abundance, species composition and age structure of all fish present in a water body.
- A team of scientists have been recruited to carry out monitoring surveys examining the fish populations on lakes, rivers, canals and estuaries across Ireland.
- Surveys will be conducted between June and October.
Where will sampling take place?
- Sampling sites were chosen based on criteria set down by the Environmental Protection Agency
- These aim to include a range of habitats and ecological status classes.
- 179 river sites, 73 lake sites, 40 canal sites and 54 estuary sites will be examined on a three year rolling programme.
- Additional operational and investigative surveys will also be examined during the programme
- EU member states are required to establish standardised sampling methods to investigate the requirements laid out by the WFD.
How are fish monitored?
- Sampling for fish is conducted using a variety of methods including electric fishing and many forms of netting.
- All species will be targeted during the survey
- Every effort is made to release fish
- A subsample of fish is removed for laboratory analysis.
Value of the information
- Monitoring will provide new information on the status of fish stocks present at these sites
- It will provide factual information to angling clubs and owners of particular waters surveyed
- Information will be used to evaluate the effectiveness or otherwise of the control measures in the River Basin Management Plans