We have expanded our taimen conservation education and awareness campaign, with posters and brochures, to the Chinggis Khan International Airport in the capital of Ulaanbaatar.  Our display stands nearly 7-feet-tall and is located in the middle of the international baggage claim area. The message is simple and clear and it uses the same poster design created by WWF-Mongolia and the RARE campaign. The consistent design is important to boost recognition of the campaign and its mission, a very important step as we gear up for our national campaign.

The thought behind targeting the airports for our message is simple. Nearly all foreign anglers fly into the international airport in Ulaanbaatar, stay for a day or two in the capital and then most continue their trip flying domestically to Khuvsgul Aimag and the domestic airport in the town of Murun. Targeting anglers in these bottlenecks guarantees that we will address the largest target audience possible. Providing the material in numerous languages (Mongolian, English, Russian, Czech, German and French) hopefully allows all anglers to read and understand the Taimen Laws and Regulations for Mongolia. The taimen conservation display in the Murun airport has been receiving even more attention than we had hoped. In my observations many foreign tourists, not just anglers, are stopping at the display and grabbing a brochure, which describes taimen conservation efforts. We have already almost gone through our first printing of 3,000 brochures.

 This series follows University of Montana graduate student Dan Bailey as he travels the wilds of Mongolia to survey and tag Taimen, the world’s largest trout. Dan is posting to the Club EcoBlu blog as he assists with the Taimen Conservation Project. Taimen are highly endangered, have been known to grow to 6-ft long and more than 200 lbs. The information gathered will aid in drafting a conservation plan to protect this megafish. Trout Headwaters, Inc. is a sponsor of the project.