Celebrating World Fish Migration Day

Today is World Fish Migration Day which is a one-day global celebration to create awareness on the importance of free-flowing rivers and migratory fish.

So what is a migratory fish?  Migratory fishes are ones that swim short or long distances, as a way to complete their life cycle. Some migratory fishes travel up and down rivers, others between rivers and oceans, and others across the oceans. For instance, Salmon migrate up rivers as adults to spawn in the same river they were born. Conversely, freshwater eels are born in the ocean but migrate long distances to carry out their lives in rivers.

Migratory fish all over the world depend on free-flowing rivers. Today, river barriers like poorly installed culverts, dams, weirs, and other obstacles threaten many fish species’ survival.

These barriers will disrupt the natural flow of water and sediment within a river, as well as prevent fish from migrating to critical upstream habitat. Many fish need to migrate to reproduce, feed, and complete their life cycles. These migratory fish are a crucial link in the food chain and play an important role in creating healthy and productive river systems.

To ensure the survival of these species, and to protect the form and function of our river systems, we need to raise awareness about the importance of free-flowing rivers and migratory fish and the threats that they face.

All throughout history, humans have used and modified rivers to improve the quality of life. While rivers provide many services (water supply, irrigation, navigation, hydropower, fishing, etc), we need to realize that these activities can cause river degradation. It is our responsibility to find solutions to restore free-flowing rivers and fish migration and prevent future degradation and species extinction.

TUC’s National ‘Reconnecting Canada’ campaign aims to protect migratory fish species as well as natural river form and function by eliminating instream barriers across Canada. With the help of regulatory agencies, partners, industry, and communities, TUC has been working hard to identify instream barriers that cause problems and implement solutions to mitigate their effect.