Something Seems Fishy

By: Kristen Becker    

    The ocean covers 70% of the Earth, stretches thousands of miles, and is home to a variety of marine animals. It’s the quality of limitlessness that led to the idea of an untamed and unconstrained sea and the exploitation of its resources. The fishery industry started to materialize in the Middle Ages when cod fishing and whaling became prominent activities. Once technology improved, fishermen could catch more fish, store the fish longer, and distribute the fish faster than ever before. The modern-day commercial fishing industry provides a resource that billions of people around the world rely on, so the sustainability and management of fisheries is incredibly important for the food security and livelihoods of current and future generations.

    For my final project, I chose to create an Instagram page titled “Something Seems Fishy” (https://www.instagram.com/something__seems__fishy/). 






    My intended outcome of this project was that the public, all ages included, would have more knowledge of the direct impacts the industry has on marine ecosystems and animals. My overarching goal was to create a one-stop-shop for information on fishery practices and management. The topics covered are as follows: history of fisheries, overfishing, commercial fishing gear and methods, bycatch, aquaculture, ghost gear, ownership of resources, the evolution of fisheries management, national laws and policies in the U.S. For each post, I put the most important information on the slide and then discuss it in detail in the caption. As each topic was posted, I added sources to the Linktr.ee in my bio in case viewers wanted to learn more (https://linktr.ee/Kbecker.fl). These sources ranged from websites to scientific papers. 






    Before I started this project, I set measurable goals for myself to accomplish my intended outcome. The set goals were to have 75 followers, a total of 10 comments, and 15 likes on each post. After the first week of posting information, I set another goal to have at least 15 views and 8 clicks on the Linktr.ee. I achieved almost all of the goals that I had set. The Instagram page has 143 followers and 17 comments. The minimum amount of likes I received on all of the posts was 16 and the maximum amount was 42. In regard to the Linktr.ee, it had 20 views and 10 clicks. One goal I did not reach was my governmental approach. I was planning on creating posts that would discuss what my audience could do to take action against harmful practices and create change. However, each post took a lot longer to make than I had anticipated, so I decided to stick to talking about the impacts on marine ecosystems and the management of fisheries. I did this to ensured that each topic was covered thoroughly, and each slide was done well. 






 

    I felt that social media was the most effective way to get my information out to the public in such a short time span. There is a lot of information about fisheries on the internet, and my page concentrated the main topics into one area. Using the concepts I learned in this class, I was able to successfully communicate information about fisheries to the public. The main strategy I used was visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric is a tool that uses photographs, pictures, and other types of media to persuade an audience about a particular environmental issue (Pezzullo and Cox, 2018). The background of every slide had a picture or video that related to the topic being discussed. The information was displayed in a pleasing way, using a variety of shapes, colors, arrows, and design layouts. The information presented allowed viewers to obtain key takeaways from each topic that was discussed. I also tried to make the titles more entertaining. Examples of this are “Overfishing: Plenty of Fish in the Sea? Not Always” and “Ghost Gear: The Nets that Haunt Our Oceans.” Finally, I added other elements onto the slide, so they weren’t boring or empty (the ghost and the fish). Overall, I tried to make my posts engaging and interesting for the users of Instagram. 



Citations: 


Pezzullo, P. C., & Cox, R. (2018). Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.




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