What is Happy Fish?

Happy Fish was designed by landscape artist Bruno Doedens to symbolize how art can bring people together. The fish’s big smile symbolizes the positive results that can come from people working together to create freer flowing waterways that connect fish, rivers, and people. Since 2016, Happy Fish statues have been hosted around the world, raising awareness about fish migration and projects that remove aging and unsafe dams and weirs or that remediate road culverts to restore river flows.

In September 2022, Trout Unlimited Canada oversaw the replacement of five road culverts (before – left) that were barriers to river and fish movements. The culverts were replaced with an open bottom geotextile-reinforced steel culvert (after – right) that restores movement of water, sediment, and fish and other animals along the stream.

Photo credit: Elliot Lindsay.

Where Happy Fish goes, there's happy people!

Donate

Happy Fish statues exist on three continents, migrating to events and river restoration sites as symbols of freer flowing rivers.

Donate today to help Happy Fish migrate to events celebrating freer flowing waterways and the community of people restoring fish migration in North America.

Support the Happy Fish

Request a Happy Fish

If you would like to host Happy Fish to raise awareness and public engagement with a river restoration project, please complete the form below and a member of the Happy Fish team will review your application and get back to you with ideas for bringing Happy Fish to your area.

Happy Fish sits in Fort Goff Creek at a site where a road culvert prohibited juvenile and adult fish movements most of the year. With the culvert removed and the bridge (pictured) built, now Steelhead and Coho and Chinook salmon have access to 4.2 miles of cold, clean water. Happy Fish joined students from Seiad Valley Elementary School who came to get their feet wet and learn about the importance of habitat restoration!

Photo credit: USFWS