Dr Craig Boys

Craig Boys is a distinguished fisheries scientist from New South Wales and one of the leading figures of screening technology in the country. With expertise in fish ecology, he serves as a Principal Research Scientist for the NSW Department of Primary Industries (Fisheries) and holds the position of Adjunct Associate Professor of Research at Charles Sturt University. 

Over the course of his impressive 20-year career, Craig has worked extensively across various regions, including Australia, South East Asia, Europe and America. He has dedicated his research efforts to collaborating with the primary industries sector, to enhancing environmental outcomes within these industries while supporting fish survival. 

One of Craig’s primary focus areas is in the design and operation of water infrastructure to facilitate safe fish passage and foster healthier fish populations. Throughout this episode, Craig sheds light on the different ways fish can be a victim to water infrastructure, such as weirs, regulators and hydropower plants, as well as the design of river diversions and pumps.  

Over the past 200 years, Australia has increasingly diverted more and more water from our inland rivers to maintain the demand of irrigation and agriculture. Craig has visited and worked on a variety of these diversions and he explains that the old-school pump design and gravity-fed diversions result in large amounts of debris, including logs, leaves and unfortunately fish in that collateral damage. In some instances, mature Murray cod as well as golden and silver perch have been ripped through the pumps, along with other natives. The pumps don’t recognise endangered species either. 

In acknowledging this problem, Craig draws from his years of experience to explain how we can improve the way native fish navigate and live alongside man-made structures which will improve the health of rivers and our native freshwater fish.   

Craig recounts some of the more significant days in his time working on fish screens, including collecting fish out of Burke irrigation dams in his university days, to travelling to the US and the UK to see how Australia can learn from other countries. Today, Craig is confident Australia is leading the world in fish passage and modern screening technology.  

Craig believes one the important elements of this story is highlighting the mutual benefits of fish screens for irrigators and native fish.  Craig explains that the past five years has seen a real shift as the benefits that screening provides to irrigators is a significant drawcard in growing the program across Australia.  This is an episode for farmers, fishers and regional towns looking for solutions to support the health of their local rivers. 

  This OzCast uncovers: 

• The issue with irrigation pumps in our rivers and the problem we are facing each year in Australia.  
• The solution that we have at hand via screening pumps, and how we can learn from other countries.  
• The issues we have faced with getting industry on board.  
• The mutual benefits of screened pumps for irrigators and rivers. 

 Further Reading

Evidence, impacts and a solution in modern fish and farm-friendly screens

Water users’ attitudes towards fish-protection screens: a case study from Australia’s Murray-Darling (Baaka) Basin

Reducing the perversion of diversion: Applying world-standard fish screening practices to the Murray–Darling Basin

Influence of Approach Velocity and Mesh Size on the Entrainment and Contact of a Lowland River Fish Assemblage at a Screened Irrigation Pump

Approach velocity and impingement duration influences the mortality of juvenile Golden Perch (Macquaria ambigua) at a fish exclusion screen

Entrainment and impingement of juvenile silver perch, Bidyanus bidyanus, and golden perch, Macquaria ambigua, at a fish screen: effect of velocity and light