We’re still swimming in joy — and we hope you are too.
Here’s a recap of the incredible Fish for the Future campaign that we launched with our partners at Michigan Climate Action Network (MICAN), Oil and Water Don’t Mix, 350 Wisconsin, Fransciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Great Lake Business Network, National Wildlife Federation, Healthy Climate Wisconsin, Three Waters Pipeline Resistance Team, and Clean Water Action.
What started as a bold idea to break a world record turned into a wave of connection, creativity, and action that stretched across the globe.
Fish for the Future was a nationwide art and action campaign to raise awareness about the urgent need to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline and protect our precious Great Lakes. Through the simple act of folding origami fish, people of all ages and backgrounds came together to make a powerful statement — one that blended creativity with climate action. Each one of the origami fish created in this campaign would be a call for action: to honor tribal sovereignty, protect the Great Lakes, and shut down Line 5 once and for all.
Enbridge’s Line 5 is a dangerous, aging oil pipeline that runs through the heart of the Great Lakes and is currently trespassing on the Bad River Band’s sovereign land. The Bad River Band has secured a court-ordered deadline for Enbridge to remove the pipeline by July of next year, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has also ordered Line 5 shut down due to the grave risk it poses to our water, climate, and communities. Instead of complying, Enbridge is pushing to expand and extend the pipeline’s life — with the support of the Trump Administration — putting millions of people and ecosystems at risk.
🐟18,000 fish turned into 86,000
Over the past few months, a flood of fish have arrived in the mail, with handwritten notes of solidarity. We had what (in hindsight) was a tiny goal of 18,304 fish and ended up receiving 86,262 origami fish — more than four times the number we needed to beat the existing record. But this campaign was never just about numbers. It was about people.
It was about the students at Toki Middle School launching a campaign on Earth Day and folding almost 16,000 fish after watching the Bad River documentary, inspired to take action and speak out. It was congregations, Cub Scouts, and classrooms joining in — over 70 organizations and hundreds of communities, big and small. It was about the high schooler that the Franciscan Sisters met who gave up folding a fish, but sent it in the “almost fish” with a message for Governor Whitmer in Michigan, “I can’t do origami, but you can shut down Line 5.” It was about all the people who folded fish from across the country with a message about wanting to protect the Great Lakes.
People from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, D.C., Canada, Mexico, and even the Netherlands sent in fish. Boxes arrived with not just folded paper, but handwritten notes of hope, solidarity, and love for the Great Lakes. One message read:
“Because of people like you I believe we will be ok, and our children and their children will have a chance to appreciate the beauty of nature.”
People who never thought they could talk to their neighbors or siblings about Line 5 found common ground — and joy — through art. Parents folded fish with their kids. Activists brought in friends who had never taken political action before. This campaign spread, organically and beautifully, one fish at a time.
And then this past weekend, we gathered together — volunteers, staff, supporters, and friends — to bring those fish to life in a massive, joy-filled event. Together, we laid out the full display, celebrated our record-smashing success, and felt the power of what we had built. 86,262 fish were displayed in an incredible exhibit in Milwaukee.
We hosted a press conference you can watch here with Representative Margaret Arney, Helen Matuszewski (Bad River Band member and the teacher of the Toki Middle School classes that make 16,000 fish!), Erica Bouldin with the Michigan Climate Action Network (MICAN), Annie Carrell, Healthy Climate Wisconsin member and nurse practitioner, and Corbeau Martin Caldwell, youth activist. We held a similar press conference in Madison, leading up to the big event, featuring Representative Francesca Hong, Helen, and youth activists Kylee Griffin and Isak Drangstveit. You can watch that here.
👉 Click here to view the photo gallery and relive the magic — and check back soon as we continue to add more pictures and recaps from the event! A recap video is coming soon!
🐟 What’s Next?
The fish aren’t done swimming. And the fish may be folded, but their story will continue to unfold.
20,000 fish swam over to Michigan this weekend. They will make their Michigan debut at the Kanoe the Kazoo event on the anniversary of when Enbridge set their own record — for the country’s largest tar sands oil spill — with over a million gallons released into the Kalamazoo River in 2010.
After that, the fish will make their way to Michigan Governor Whitmer — carrying the call each one represents: a powerful, visual plea to deny the outrageous Line 5 tunnel permits and finally bring Line 5 to an end.
Some of the fish will swim to Canada and Minnesots for their own displays, and we are working to set up a display at the Wisconsin State Capitol. And we’re already hearing from people who want to host mini-displays in libraries, community centers, and local events around the country. If you know of a place that would like to display a framed fish or a string of fish —a little piece of history —and help their story carry on, please fill out this form.
We hope the message of the fish continues to ripple on for years: We must honor treaty rights, protect the Great Lakes, shut down Line 5, and stand up for our water, our climate, and our future.
Your creativity, your passion, and your belief in the power of collective action turned this dream into a movement. The full list of almost 700 contributors will be posted on the website soon!
With Deepest Thanks
We are profoundly grateful for every person who helped make this happen — for every fish folded, every fish pinned to the board, every hour volunteered, every conversation sparked.
✨ Special thanks to:
- Our partners (listed above)
- Jadine Sonoda for coming up with this wild and amazing idea and spearheading it, along with Natalie Cook (Sierra Club Dirty Fuels campaign), Megan Wittman (Sierra Club Press Secretary), Lyla Hollis, and Britnie Remer (350 Wisconsin).
- Devon Young Cupery for building such a compelling and beautiful website and putting together the photo gallery that tells the story of the day
- Sierra Club Wisconsin staff who oversaw the building of the display, working very late into the evening/early morning last week [Cassie Steiner, Heather Wittrock, Jacinda Tessmann, Jadine Sonoda],
- Our incredible volunteers who helped count the fish, from our very first inventory [when Ben Bishop and Abby Mapes thought 5,000 fish was daunting to count!] to the volunteers who came in weekly or took boxes home with them [Ann Marie Zagzebski, Liz Peltekian, and so many others]
- The people who painstakingly (causing some real pain at times) sewed and strung hundreds of strings of fish and carefully pinned them to the boards, making the beautiful displays, including Deb Sproule (who also helped carry all 36 sheets of insulation up the stairs!), Phyllis Hasbrouck, Marian Fredal, Pam Olson, Noah Wong, Jennie Watson, Don Ferber, Sandra Larson and Aurora Larson-Simon (who made the very first board), and Yvonne Besyk.
- David Diehl for envisioning and building the kiosk stands, and Jamie Schumacher, who envisioned and hung the nets from the ceiling, and did a little last-minute wall restoration we didn’t know we’d need!
- The incredible set-up and clean-up crew in Milwaukee who were able to unload the U-Haul in less than an hour and reload it at the end of a very long day in 45 minutes. That may have been more impressive to me than the actual display!
Your creativity, your passion, and your belief in the power of collective action turned this dream into a movement. The full list of almost 700 contributors will be posted on the website soon!
More stories, videos, and ways to stay involved are on the way. But right now, take pride in what we’ve made — a movement that’s creative, connected, and still growing. This is what’s possible when we act together. And we’re just getting started.
Here's what you can do:
Sign up to have or help put up a piece of history
Donate to help with this campaign and to keeping the display swimming here