A fish leaves the harbour whole. By the time it reaches the table, crime has taken almost everything.
Fish feeds billions of people and supports millions of jobs, many of them in small coastal communities. When organised criminal networks move into the fishing industry, through illegal fishing, fraud, tax evasion, corruption and forced labour, those communities pay the price. They lose food, income, jobs and the public revenue that pays for schools and services.
Blue Justice is an intergovernmental network working towards a sustainable and fair blue economy, free from transnational organised crime in the global fishing industry. Criminals seek out the most vulnerable regions of the world, typically states with limited resources to prevent and combat organised crime, and Blue Justice supports developing countries to deter and counter it.
Our brief was to make the impact of fisheries crime tangible to ordinary people. Statistics about lost revenue rarely move anyone. A plate of bones does.
Whole Fish follows one fish from the harbour to the table. It starts whole and fresh, passes through the hands of the community that depends on it, and arrives with almost nothing left. There is no lecture and very little explanation: the story makes the point. It links fisheries crime to the things the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals set out to protect, from ending poverty and hunger to decent work, life below water, and peace, justice and strong institutions.
