International community celebrates World Fish Migration Day

World Fish Migration Day is a one-day global celebration to create awareness of open rivers and migratory fish celebrates this year on 24 October. This international day of events is coordinated by the World Fish Migration Foundation. On World Fish Migration Day, organizations from around the world coordinate their own event around the common theme of CONNECTING FISH, RIVERS AND PEOPLE. Due to the pandemic, most events are online, such as the International Eurofishion Song Contest: www.worldfishmigrationday.com

The Wadden Sea is also an important site for migratory fish. The Wadden Sea is one of the world’s largest coherent intertidal wetlands. With more than 140 fish species recorded to date, the fish community is exceptionally diverse. About 20 species remain in the region for (almost) their entire life cycle; others depend on the Wadden Sea at least for one stage of their life. These include many flatfish, which spend their juvenile phase in the area, diadromous species, which pass the region on their way to marine or fresh-water spawning sites, and seasonal migrants.

The populations of many fish species in the Wadden Sea have declined in recent decades. Basic understanding of essential processes and functional pathways is often still missing, hampering effective and efficient fish conservation. To work on this, the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation has been active in formulating fish targets and bringing to life the Swimway Initiative. The Initiative's vision is to bring together several different stakeholders on the fish population as well as to better understand and raise awareness on fish migration pathways.