The main goal of World Fish Migration Day is to improve the public’s understanding of the importance of migratory fish and how we can reduce our impact on them. The next step is to enable citizens around the world to act to restore rivers to their natural state. Ultimately, we aim to create sustainable commitments from NGOs, governments and industry on safeguarding free-flowing rivers and restoring swimways or migratory fish.  

As a day where events around the world take place, centralized around this topic, we can create a stronger call to our local governments to restore and protect these rich resources.   

We hope that people of all ages can attend World Fish Migration Day events to learn about rivers and fishes. Only this way can we work towards better protecting them. 

When it comes to what types of events you can host for World Fish Migration Day, the list is endless! In the past, we have seen river cleanups, aquarium/museum exhibits and field trips, kayak trips, citizen science labs, movie screenings, global webinars, and more. Your event can be as small or large as you want! Check out our past events page for even more inspiration. 

The goal of your event should broadly encapsulate the greater purpose of World Fish Migration Day. Some questions you can ask yourself are: does my event educate, inspire, and give people the tools to connect with their local rivers and fish? And does my event feel connected to the broader global movement? If yes, then you have achieved the goals of World Fish Migration Day! 

Our recruitment team is available to answer any questions you may have! All our available FREE materials are on our downloads site that you may use for your event. We also try to highlight events through our social media channels and occasionally in our newsletters. Be sure to follow us on these channels, so you are getting the latest information! Unfortunately, we do not provide financial support for individual events. Still, we hope having free resources on our website, and extra social media exposure makes up for it!  

Please find all the available materials on our downloads page. Should you like to have something translated to your language, let us know! We can try to provide a working file. 

Yes, you can use the logo for World Fish Migration Day events but cannot modify it or place it on a background that makes it hard to see. 

Yes! To upload an event, you must first register an event, and an event account will automatically be created and sent to your email. Then, you may log in into your event account to modify any information (event description, pictures, downloadable files, partners, location) anytime you want. If you have multiple events with the same email, they will all show up under the same email address and you can change details of an event from the one event account. 

This is a bit more difficult to answer as every event is unique. When you start organizing your event, it is important to think about your easily available resources and how you can best use those to facilitate a successful event. For example, if you are an organization that already has kayaks, it would be great to organize a river tour with those!   

Organizing your event will also depend on the nature of your event. Is it an exhibition, a fishway visit, a seminar lecture, a children’s activity? If you know what type of event you would like to organize, you can reach out to others who may have experience in understanding the steps to success. If you would like to get in contact with a past event host, don’t hesitate to ask us at info@fishmigration.org.For some tips, tricks, and things to remember, please watch this video on our YouTube. The most important thing is to keep it simple and have fun!

You may find all our FREE promo materials on our website downloads page. Visit the downloads page and choose what materials would be excellent for your event. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to print these for you but hopefully having free downloads makes up for it.  

While there is no exact science on how to get people to attend an event, you may want to consider the following options: get in contact with your local newspaper announcing your event and providing details, create a FaceBook event and invite your followers, send out a save the date in your newsletter with updates about the events and follow-up reminders, create teasers or agenda posts on social media, create a link to register to your event so you know about how many to expect, and send out flyers to target attendee audiences. Is someone special attending, or will there be a unique performance? Let others know! There are many ways to spread the word about your event. Don’t forget to invite your friends and family, they will always show up. 

There are many ways to contact your local or national media outlets. Reach out to a journalist you know to have them write about or cover your event for the day! If you do not know a journalist, research some local and national newspapers, TV stations or radio stations that you could reach out to. Then, send in a request using their contact form, providing them with the pitch of your story and event. You may also try to contact journalists directly (if their email or phone number is available or through social media) who have covered a similar topic previously. It is best to reach out to journalists 3 to 4 weeks in advance of your event, so you have time to follow up with them, or they have time to schedule the story.   

Remember to include in your pitch that your event is part of a broader worldwide celebration and the importance of it on a local scale. Good luck! 

Absolutely! We love to keep track of what is happening worldwide and to get a greater sense of the global impact. Please send these articles or links to the reports as attachments to our feedback survey after World Fish Migration Day.

We hope to keep track of what is happening around the world and share it with our community on and around World Fish Migration Day. For this to happen, it is helpful if you tag us in your event posts using @World Fish Migration Day (FaceBook), @fishmigration (Instagram) and @fishmigration (Twitter). This way, we can repost and share about your event! We would also appreciate it you used our hashtags #WorldFishMigrationDay #HappyFish #BreakFree

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic saw the reimagining of World Fish Migration Day celebrations. The world rallied to create engaging virtual and outdoor events that brought millions of people together from their homes. Here are some tried and true ideas for hosting a virtual WFMD2022 event:

-Host a remote screening of Love Flows! This can be done even through online apps like Zoom, Skype or Google Hangout screen share! Want to make it interesting? Invite members and experts from your organization to host a panel Q&A after the screening to answer any questions the audience may have!

-Host a live video from your organization’s social media page. From virtual fish passage tours to fish releases to an educational series, many who are at home are interested in virtual escapes. It’s also a bonus that people can ask questions throughout the live video. Check out this example from our friends at the Connecticut River Conservancy!

-Host a webinar conference or meeting in place of a physical one. See here for a detailed webinar how-to guide!

-Feeling creative? Make an animation or short video about the importance of migratory fishes and free-flowing rivers and an activity that can go along with it. Use this for your own event, present it at an online class or make it available for schools in your area to use and share for World Fish Migration Day. 

-Virtual tours are all the rage during the Covid era! If you have a facility that houses fish, create a virtual underwater (or above water) tour with some awesome facts about the fishes in your aquarium. 

-Do you have a fish cam in your river? Create an event out of it! Challenge others to identify, count, and spot fish throughout the day. Allow the audience to connect with each other by offering a way to comment on the page. 

-Create a virtual reality or drone tour of your river basin, especially if it has been recently restored!

-Get kids involved by asking them to prepare a short skit or presentation about their favorite migratory fish to share with their class- creativity is encouraged. 

These are just some ideas, but we are so excited to see the creativity of this year’s participants!

Yes! We typically allow organizers to register their events even if their event is before World Fish Migration Day. We realize weather, scheduling, and seasonal constraints all play a role in when you can plan your event. We ask that you try to host your event within a week of May 21, 2022. If that is not possible, let us know. The most important thing is raising awareness, no matter what time of year.