Fisheries Creek

Our water quality monitoring program has shown Fisheries Creek to have good water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.

Fisheries Creek is located on the south coast of New South Wales and flows into Twofold Bay. It is classed as small lagoon with an intermittently closed entrance.

Estuary health and features

Water quality

As part of our water quality monitoring program we assess the water quality and ecosystem health of an estuary using a range of relevant indicators. We sample a subset of the estuaries between Wollongong and the Victorian border every 3 years. The most recent sampling in Fisheries Creek was completed over the 2020–21 summer when 2 sites were sampled on a monthly basis.

Fisheries Creek water quality report card for algae and water clarity showing colour-coded ratings (red, orange, yellow, light green and dark green, which represent very poor, poor, fair, good and excellent, respectively). Algae is rated 'good' and water clarity is rated 'excellent' giving an overall rating of 'good' or 'B'.

This report card represents 2 water quality indicators that we routinely measure: the amount of algae present and water clarity. Low levels of these 2 indicators equate with good water quality.

The report card shows the condition of the estuary was good with:

  • algae abundance graded good (B)
  • water clarity graded good (B)
  • overall estuary health graded good (B).

Find out more about our estuary report cards and what each grade means. Read our sampling, data analysis and reporting protocols and find out how we calculate these grades.

We have monitored water quality in Fisheries Creek since 2017. This table shows the water quality grades for this estuary over that time.

Fisheries Creek historic water quality grades from 2017-18 for algae and water clarity. Colour-coded ratings (red, orange, yellow, light green and dark green represent very poor (E), poor (D), fair (C), good (B) and excellent (A), respectively).

Grades for algae, water clarity and overall are represented as:

  • A – excellent
  • B – good
  • C – fair
  • D – poor
  • E – very poor.

Physical characteristics

Estuary type: Lagoon

Entrance
location
Latitude (ºS) –37.11
Longitude (ºE) 149.93
Catchment area (km2) 6.4
Estuary area (km2) 0.1
Estuary volume (ML) 15.6
Average depth (m) 0.3
Notes: km2 = square kilometres; m = metres; ML = megalitres.  

Water depth and survey data

Bathymetric and coastal topography data for this estuary are available in our data portal.

Land use

A sealed road and a few fire trails pass through the Fisheries Creek catchment, otherwise it is forested including a small section of Ben Boyd National Park.

National and marine parks

  • Ben Boyd National Park is the largest conservation area within this catchment.
  • This estuary does not flow into a marine park.

Citizen science projects

  • The Far South Coast Conservation Management Network supports the local community to better manage native biodiversity. The network organises citizen science projects, provides information for private landowners, manages a local plant database and coordinates events.

Community involvement

  • The Far South Coast Landcare Association supports a range of volunteer environmental and conservation groups in the region that work to improve management of local land and water.
Fisheries Creek

Local government management

Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park. Bega Valley Shire Council manage this estuary.