Migration education

Each year, thousands of salmon and other migratory fish journey 250 miles from the Pacific Ocean to Butte and Big Chico creeks to spawn. “You imagine the challenges they face,” said Gabriel Kopp, director of operations at FISHBIO, “and have a great deal of respect for a species able to thrive through that.”

Kopp hopes Chicoans will take on a more modest trek aimed at calling attention to the importance of open waterways for migratory fish species. On May 24, or World Fish Migration Day, FISHBIO is hosting the Bidwell Park 5K Salmon Run. The event will serve as a capstone for a year of educational outreach efforts both in California and the Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia, dubbed the Three Rivers Education Program.

Chico State grad Doug Demko created FISHBIO six years ago in the Stanislaus County town of Oakdale, subsequently establishing locations in Laos and Chico. The company uses state-of-the-art technology it manufactures in Oakdale to research and monitor fish populations—a measure of a river system’s overall health—working with water companies, irrigation districts and the Army Corps of Engineers.

FISHBIO has “a culture of being responsible and giving back,” Kopp said. He pointed to fish counts in Big Chico Creek conducted pro bono last summer, as well as company-organized volunteer stream cleanups as examples.

About a year ago, FISHBIO got word of World Fish Migration Day, the website for which reads: “Free migration for fish is crucial to achieve healthy fish stocks. … If they can’t migrate, the population will die out. This has happened with many species in different places around the world already.”

While acknowledging that natural challenges for migratory fish are plentiful, the website emphasizes that fish are impeded by man-made obstacles like dams and pumps. “We have built so many barriers in the rivers and on the coast that it is very hard for migratory fish to reproduce,” it says.

Since the message of World Fish Migration Day aligns with that of FISHBIO, Kopp said, the company wanted to participate but considered a one-time event inadequate. The Three Rivers Education Program was conceived and has since connected schoolchildren in Chico and Oakdale to those in Laos, where dams are threatening Mekong River fish populations—the main source of protein for millions of people.

“We talk with kids about migratory fish, the rivers and people and the interdependence between the three,” Kopp said. “We talked about the streams in the opposing countries. The kids in Laos learned about salmon; the kids in California learned about the Mekong giant catfish.”

The students also exchanged letters and drawings of various fish. Kopp said the program will continue after World Fish Migration Day. The Salmon Run, meanwhile, will underscore how the community can take small steps to help clear migratory pathways for fish, Kopp said.

“Most people think of larger things—a dam, a pump—but it’s down to even smaller levels,” he said. “Even things like creek cleanups; having a mattress in the middle of a stream doesn’t allow for a clear migration pathway. Every stream has its needs, and we can all be part of making it better.”

By holding the event in Lower Bidwell Park, FISHBIO hopes to bring the message home for locals. “The race itself is built on celebrating our local streams and fishes,” Kopp said, “and what’s more iconic than Big Chico Creek?”