The public education campaigns and fish releasing activities on World Fish Migration Day were first launched in China
The third World Fish Migration Day (WFMD) was organized in China on April 21, 2018, with the aim to enhance public awareness of migratory fish, for example, the Chinese sturgeons. The WFMD education and communication activities were organized by the Chinese Sturgeon Conservation and Rescue Alliance, the World Natural Fund, the Yangtze River Research Institute, the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, the Shanghai YuYue Ecological Water Protection Development Center and other units in Wuhan, and it’s the fist time that it was held in China.
TheWorld Fish Migration Day initiated by The Word Fish Migration Foundation, which was an one day event to create worldwide awareness of the importance of freshwater migratory fish and open rivers. It was held every two years since 2014, and more than 2000 organizations around the world have organized events on the third World Fish Migration Day.
The subject of this activity is “human, water and fish live in harmony”, with the promotion of education activities around Chinese sturgeon, which is a large river sea migratory fish and a first class national protected animals of China. On this day, more than 150 people participated in the activity, including relevant leaders, experts and student volunteers from the National Aquatic Wildlife Conversation Association, the Institute of Hydrobiology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Fudan University, the Wuhan University, the Huazhong Agricultural University and Changjiang Conversation Foundation, and some non-governmental organizations and more than 20 families from Wuhan which care for aquatic animals.
The activities carried out during the day were various, including scientific popularization by means of illustrative panels, specimens show, distribution of information brochures, card colouring and prize-winning quiz on migratory fish, increasing the awareness of the people on the scientific activities related to restocking actions, lectures of experts and the release into the Yangtze River of 50 specimens of Chinese sturgeon of second generation from controlled reproduction, tagged with PIT tags. The atmosphere was lively, primary school students were excited, and family interaction was enthusiastic, and all these achieved good publicity effects, which would help the protection of Yangtze River and the endangered aquatic animals such as the Chinese sturgeon. In addition, the non-governmental release group became aware the potential danger of a disordered fish releasing, and planned to conduct standardized proliferation of public activity together with some relevant organizations and entities. Important leaders and experts did scientific reports and depth discussions around the protection of Yangtze River and migratory fish, and called on all sectors to promote the protection of aquatic ecosystems in the whole basin under the guidance of the Yangtze river protection strategy to protect Chinese sturgeon and the Yangtze River.
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