Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 16.09.2024 
No More Fishy Facts: #FishFarmsOut
Curious PR was founded in 2013 by former broadcast journalist, Hannah Kapff, as an agency that would go the extra mile for clients, based on in-depth questioning of the issues or concepts at play in order to tell the client’s story ‘better’. Since 2018, we’ve achieved a global media audience of over 14bn* for clients, many of whom have been with us for years. This demonstrates our all-round ‘value’ – not only financial, but also in terms of creativity, expert counsel, flexibility and impact generation. Clients aside though, having a background in Environmental Science enables Hannah to enshrine ‘sustainability’ in all company values and behaviours, ensuring that people come first.
*Based on monthly figures
Our team was elated to discover we’d been selected as a finalist for Best Not-for-Profit PR Campaign (small) by the European Agency Awards, as well as by the UK Agency Awards. As a small agency, we pack a punch in terms of results, as shown via #FishFarmsOut. This global campaign secured a media audience of 688m* and gained 175 signatures on an important letter to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO), urging it to remove industrial fish farming from its list of so-called ‘sustainable’ aquaculture activities.
Such results went ‘above and beyond’ what our client had hoped for, and we overcame many challenges to achieve them. Maddy Lowe, account executive notes, “It was a thrill to work on #FishFarmsOut – the collaboration, enthusiasm and grit witnessed was truly inspiring. Seeing this global issue gain global recognition is exciting, as it’s an issue that affects us all, regardless of what we eat.”
One challenge we faced was that most people don’t associate fish farming, or eating farmed fish, with the devastation it wreaks on people and planet: It takes 1.2kg of WILD fish to produce 1kg of industrially farmed fish – salmon, sea bass, sea bream etc – which means nutrients are being lost, and livelihoods ‘stolen’, along the way – mainly from food-insecure communities in the Global South, especially West Africa.
Collaboration is Key
With environmental campaigns, many voices are better than one, and #FishFarmsOut was no exception. When there are multiple stakeholders to reach, and complex technical issues at play, a 360 degree approach is needed. This is imbued in our team by our founder, who started the company to reflect her own natural curiosity and get people thinking, talking and behaving differently. On the subject of #FishFarmsOut, Hannah explains, “I’ve communicated for 15+ years on health and sustainability, and sadly, the two are still siloed. I see a false dichotomy between the health of our planet, and that of our bodies: without one, we can’t have the other. What we choose to eat must be healthy in BOTH regards. Our consumer decisions impact everyone on our planet. As #FishFarmsOut shows, we are all connected.”
From ‘Small Island’…
Our campaign started in 2023 with a brief from the US-based Rauch Foundation aimed at educating multiple stakeholders about industrial fish farming’s dangers. Working with our policy partner in Brussels, we started with the aim of saving a small, idyllic island – Poros in the Bay Of Athens – from a 25% takeover of its land and coastline by industrial fish farms. One of the many threats these farms bring is marine dead zones caused by the vast volumes of waste food and faeces they generate: a ‘tourism-repellent’ 16,000 tons/day in Poros, IF plans go ahead.
Besides writing headline-fuelling press releases, campaign assets included infographics and a 30-minute film – Saving Poros – by award-winning investigative journalist, Francesco deAugustinis. The result? On World Ocean Day, our spokesperson from a Poros non-profit, Katheti, spoke live on BBC World News’ World Business Report (audience: 100m+/week). Plus, we secured significant coverage in major European outlets including Euronews, Le Monde and France24.
… To A Global Campaign
Having placed the many issues of fish farming on the map, our 2024 strategy took us beyond Greece onto the global stage. At Curious, we know the power of film to change hearts and minds, given its nuanced messaging potential. We promoted 2 documentaries about fish farming: ’‘Until the End of the World’ (also by deAugustinis) and ‘Poros Stands’ (AKA ‘The Sanctuary of Poseidon’) by Tasmania’s Mike Sampey, and organised UK premières for both, including Q&As with deAugustinis in Rome, and Katheti’s Fay Orfanidou in Poros.
Then, we helped organise and publicise the first Seas of Change Summit, jointly hosted by Rauch Foundation, Katheti, and Argentina’s GSFR (Global Salmon Farming Resistance, which helped ban open net fish farming in that country in 2022). The summit saw 80 experts and leaders from 50+ organisations, 14 countries and 4 continents share data and insights about the growing environmental, economic and social losses caused by industrial fish farming around the world. Such was the heated sentiment that on Day 2, Greek TV News crews arrived in the wake of 3 mayors and ministerial staff. Then, on day 3, the delegates agreed on shared action for World Ocean Day 2024 in June.
Delegates gather outside Seas Of Change Summit
After further collaborative strategising, the chosen campaign was #FishFarmsOut which involved sending a fully-evidenced letter to the head of the UNFAO on World Ocean Day, asking it to “Stop classifying industrial fish farming as ‘sustainable’’ because in so many ways, it is anything BUT!
Our efforts, alongside those of our policy expert, Joanna Sullivan, helped garner signatures from 175 global organisations and experts across 6 continents. Our highly creative team worked with other Rauch partners to produce an array of campaign assets: web copy for www.FishFarmsOut.org, infographics, social media assets and a campaign video featuring voices from around the world with a clear call-to-action: “Fish farms out!”
We then secured further top-tier coverage on / around World Ocean Day. This included a live interview for Eva Douzinas, Rauch Foundation president, on BBC World News, where she said: “We are witnessing destruction of sea meadows, ecosystems, local fisheries, and livelihoods from the world’s fastest growing food industry.” We secured an article on page 6 of the Financial Times (online here), plus a detailed article in Mail Online reporting fears of Poros residents living under this ‘sword of Damocles’. Between 2023 and 2024, the audience reach of our media coverage totalled 1.2 billion monthly unique users, which broke our internal campaign record.
Shortly afterwards, a detailed reply arrived from the head of the UNFAO, indicating a willingness to engage on this complex, multi-stakeholder issue. Rauch Foundation has since met him in Rome, and our team is making plans to help move this critical issue even higher on the agenda of multiple stakeholders, and on the global map of food issues which must be tackled urgently.
Our original brief was to spotlight one Greek island’s issues, but our ambition, expertise and creativity gave Rauch Foundation confidence to collaborate globally, for global effect. In the process we’ve helped its network, capacity, and reputation as a globally-facing non-profit with impact that’s helping eradicate the illogical, wasteful and unethical practice that is industrial fish farming.
Being nominated by the European Agency Awards gives us yet more energy to keep up the momentum by making waves and amplifying the voices of organisations with the planet’s best interests at heart. This has, and always will be, the Curious PR way.
