We were recently approached by Greenpeace UK to create an infographic to support their Our Net Gain campaign, highlighting the plight of the UK fishing quota system.
Our Net Gain is an ongoing campaign highlighting environmental and economical gains if the UK fishing quota is redistributed to sustainable fishermen. It focuses on empowering local fishermen and presents the sustainability of local fishermen and their role in the economic stability across UK coastal towns.
In the UK, fishing boats under 10 metres in length make up almost 80% of the fleet, but have 4% of the UK fishing quota. Small, local boats generally fish using more sustainable methods, so supporting them helps protect our seas as well as the coastal communities.
In comparison, the Cornelis Vrolijk, Britain’s most controversial single fishing vessel, holds 23% of the English quota (about 6% of the entire UK fishing quota). This vessel is registered as British, but its owners are Dutch, and it lands its entire catch in the Netherlands. In fact, just 5 large vessels hold 20% of the UK fishing quota. I know, I know- these statistics are outrageous.
After years of intense work, Greenpeace successfully collected many hundreds of thousands of signatures to support the campaign. Ministers and MEP’s then delivered a new set of laws to support fair, sustainable UK fishing. It is the smaller vessels (that make up 80% of our fleet) that have the most to gain from the new rules.
However, instead of giving desperately-needed quota to local, low impact fishers, DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has decided to continue to give most of the UK fishing quota to industrial fishing businesses – like Cornelis Vrolijk which alone receives the Lion’s share of England’s quota. This can force many local, sustainable fishermen to bankruptcy for lack of quota and therefore an income.
So Greenpeace has lodged a case at the High Court, convinced that DEFRA’s decision to continue giving these significant quota levels to industrial fishing corporations, at the expense of low impact fishermen, contravenes the new EU fishing laws. Go, Greenpeace!
The Brief
Our Net Gain campaign utilizes a contemporary, bold design aesthetic that benefits from the skills of the amazing graphic artist and visual storyteller, Noma Bar.
For our brief, the campaign context needed to be readily understood by a variety of audiences, with a narrative that illustrates the injustice of the Governments current fishing quota allocation using the data provided.
The infographic needed to contextualise campaign activity and to present the complicated and often dry world of UK fishing quota allocation in a way that is compelling and insightful.
We hope you like the resulting infographic and more importantly , we hope you donate to a great cause. Let’s support our UK fishing fleet. #OurNetGain.
