The award of Silver Fish existed from the beginning of the Guiding movement. It is mentioned in the November 1909 edition of the "Boy Scout Headquarters Gazette" in "The Scheme for 'Girl Guides'". Here a girl must pass seventeen specified efficiency badges. However, in "Pamphlet A: Baden-Powell Girl Guides, a Suggestion for Character Training for Girls", also published in 1909, twenty efficiency badges were needed to obtain the Silver Fish. This was later reduced to fifteen and, additionally, good all round work was required. The award was considered a sign of a girl 'who could make her way upstream'.