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Michael Köck European tour update 1: Mexico City – Rostock, Germany
Michael Köck, Chair of Plan G: the initiative to save the highly threatened Goodeinae family of Splitfins in Mexico, is currently touring zoos, public aquaria and museums across Europe with the aim of engaging stakeholders in Plan G's conservation plan. Here, he gives his first update on the trip.
Leaving Mexico on 27 August, I arrived the following day in Copenhagen, Denmark. Next day I took a connecting flight to Sandefjord, about 20 km west of Oslo, Norway. I got picked up by a friend who brought me to his farm in Porsgrunn where I spent two days acclimatising. He is a hobby fishkeeper who has been to Mexico a few times, so we spent those days talking a lot about fish, Mexico and Plan G.
Two more friends visited us and we created some really nice ideas around Plan G. For example, one of these guys works with several friends in a company that plans ecological and sustainably functioning cities and towns, and they would be very interested to work with Teuchitlán [the town where the Golden Skiffia was successfully reintroduced] on a pro bono basis. He wants to convince his partners to support Plan G financially.
On 31 August, we all went by car to Fiskebäckskil, Sweden where I gave a talk at the 50-year anniversary of the hobbyist organisation Poecilia Scandinavia about Plan G. More than 20 people from five countries joined the meeting and the talk was well received. Directly after, Poecilia Scandinavia donated €3,000 to Plan G and another €1,500 to the Aqualab in Morelia and asked me to write an article about Plan G for one of the next issues of their magazine.
http://shoalconservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Backstage-breeding-tank-Zoogoneticus-tequila-Malmo-Museum-Malmo-Sweden-1024x771.jpgBackstage breeding tank of Zoogoneticus tequila, Malmö Museum, Malmö, Sweden.
I headed to Malmö on 2 September, where I had a meeting with the leader of the Aquarium of the Malmö Museum, Jesper Flygare in the morning and gave a presentation about Plan G to him and the staff. The people were impressed by our conservation work and promised to help. The museum is run by the town of Malmö and the concept doesn’t allow any straight donations, but we agreed on making an exhibition with Goodeids and a donation function for visitors, as well as promoting Plan G to the local fish club. The aquarium already keeps two species of Goodeid and even runs an ex situ conservation project for one of them, so there is already a strong connection. My presentation was followed by the head animal keeper of the Tropikariet Indoor Zoo in Helsingborg, Jonas Östander, who got invited to my presentation by the Malmö Museum team. He invited me to present Plan G to his director who is interested in supporting new conservation projects. Though my schedule was very tight, I promised to find a time slot for the next day in the late afternoon.
http://shoalconservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Presenting-in-front-of-Poecilia-Scandinavia-Fiskebackskil-Sweden-1024x768.jpeg
Presenting in front of Poecilia Scandinavia, Fiskebäckskil, Sweden.
On 3 September, I paid a visit to the Den Blå Planet, Denmark’s biggest public aquarium. The head animal keeper Peter Petersen showed me around and I was impressed not only by the number of rare fish in their show tanks, but also to see huge colonies of several Goodeid species backstage. They have joined the EAZA Goodeid Ex Situ Program (EEP) and are focusing on ex situ conservation of many endangered fish species from many fish groups. I presented Plan G to Peter and he suggested he will present it to the board of directors to select Plan G to get funded by their conservation fund. Luckily, I prepared USB sticks with the Plan G logo in a little bag with Mexican sweets and a pen made of copper – a little gift from Santa Clara del Cobre near Lake Pátzcuaro for all my contacts on the tour. The USB sticks hold information about the “Guardianes del Río Teuchitlán” and SHOAL, as well as my Plan G presentation.
Starting at 14:00, I started for Helsingborg, knowing time would be tight for Tropikariet Zoo, as it closes at 17:00. Unfortunately, a taxi driver brought me to the wrong train station and I arrived 10 min too late. The zoo was informed but unfortunately no one could wait for me. I was however able to leave my little present with the USB stick, and I will for sure contact them after my return to Mexico.
On September 4 I took a ferry transfer from Trelleborg, Sweden to Rostock, Germany, where I have a visit to the local zoo scheduled for 5 September, and one to the zoo in Schwerin in the afternoon. I will let you know how these visits and the ones in Berlin thereafter went.
Stay tuned!
