New Zealand Fish Passage Advisory Group

Introduction

This group brings together ecologists, engineers and environmental advisors. They support and develop resources for fish passage, and advocates for improved fish passage management.

NZ Fish Passage Advisory Group logo.

It represents the many different businesses, organisations, councils and government agencies that are involved in fish passage management in New Zealand. It's coordinated by the Ministry for the Environment and the Department of Conservation.

Our role

The key roles of the advisory group are to:

  • To support and provide independent advice to the Ministry for the Environment, the Department of Conservation and Councils on matters relating to implementation of the fish passage policies and regulations and wider fish passage improvement issues                                                                           
  • To support, provide direction, and on occasion lead and coordinate the development and implementation of guidance, tools and data collection systems, and promote their use ​
  • To identify, prioritise, promote and look for opportunities to progress fish passage research, development of tools​                                                                               
  • To promote an interdisciplinary approach, promote awareness and liaise with and foster support from industry bodies, professional organisations and special interest groups and management

Current key roles of the group are around communication, implementation of national resources, promotion and uptake of key research gaps, and creation of key resources to support improved fish passage management. We have formed sub-groups to progress these and leads are identified in the membership list.

Newsletter and resources

Fresh Connection newsletter

This newsletter is published regularly to keep readers informed about fish passage management in New Zealand. 

View newsletters on our download site. 

Sign up by emailing advisorygroup@fishpassagenz.org. You can also ask to join our mailing list for other news.

Resources

We create resources, like the series of lessons learnt case studies, to provide guidance, promote fish passage and share examples of where passage has been improved.

Fish passage resources

YouTube channel

Our YouTube channel contains a collection of fish videos and conference presentations about fish passage.

Fish passage guidelines and assessment tool

We advocate and promote the:

This includes distribution, presentations, publishing summaries and promoting formal adoption. 

Knowledge gaps

We maintain a list of research and knowledge gaps that relate to fish passage management. The gaps may be useful starters for research projects for postgraduate students.

Fish passage research priorities (PDF, 160K)

Members

The Department of Conservation and Ministry for the Environment coordinate this group and provide governance direction.

The New Zealand Fish Passage Advisory Group members are:

  • Tanya Blakely (Boffa Miskell) – Chair and communications subgroup lead
  • Sjaan Bowie / Marine Richardson (DOC) – Sjaan (Coordinator and overall and focussed guidance subgroup lead)
  • Alice Bradley (Ministry for the Environment)
  • Paul Franklin (NIWA) – National guidelines lead
  • Patrick Lees (Tonkin + Taylor)
  • Trevor James / Kerry South (Tasman District Council) (Kerry - Council Group lead) 
  • Megan Kennedy (NZTA)
  • Daya Thompson (KiwiRail)
  • Beck Reed (Fish & Game)
  • Melissa Shearer (Environment Canterbury)
  • Christina Bloom / Colleen Brent (Auckland Council)
  • Steve Hall (Waikato Regional Council)
  • Cindy Baker (NIWA) – Research subgroup lead
  • Kati Doehring (Cawthron Institute)
  • Omar Seychell (Fulton Hogan) – Industry Group lead
  • Eugene Vodjansky (Bloxam, Burnett & Olliver).

Contact

To contact the advisory group or join the wider interest groups, email advisorygroup@fishpassagenz.org