March update - Native Fish Recovery Strategy

On 10 March the draft Native Fish Recovery Strategy was publicly released on the MDBA’s GetInvolved site for submissions. This was a big milestone for the team, representing many months of work running workshops, collaborating with our Cultural and Technical Advisory Groups and the multi-jurisdictional Steering Group, incorporating online feedback and collating insights from previous strategies, research, plans and programs.

Following release of the draft Strategy there has been good traffic on our GetInvolved page (with over 500 visits), however, fewer than 20 submissions have been received.

We have heard from a number of stakeholders that they have had trouble submitting surveys, due to the website freezing. We have since undertaken some bug fixes and recommend that people access the survey via Google Chrome or Firefox. Submissions can also be sent straight to NFRS@mdba.gov.au if preferred.

In addition, we have decided to extend the submission period by a week, to close on the 14 April. Given the major disruption currently caused by COVID-19 this extension will provide more opportunity for stakeholders to send through feedback.

For this Strategy to succeed it is vital that the priorities and needs of all stakeholders are reflected within the document. Once submissions close feedback will be incorporated into the final document, which will be released in May 2020.

It is important to note that the development of the Strategy is a first step in an adaptive, evolving process. Ongoing engagement will be a core element of the Strategy from its finalisation through to its implementation. We aim to build enduring partnerships with communities to design and implement on-ground actions for our native fish.