Save Our Sea! You Can Do It!

Background
Many "green"products claimed in the market nowadays which customers are sometimes confused by their claims and mistrust about their validity. "Trustmarks help ensure companies follow best practices by setting clear and transparent standards."(By GreenBiz Staff) 1. Ecological label helps consumers to identify products which are more environmentally preferable than other similar products with the same functions in the markets.

Due to the overfishing in recent years, our oceans are under more pressure than before. In order to tackle the issue of seafood sustainability, an organization is funded. Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent non-profit organization with an ecological label and fishery certification programme. It aims to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by recognizing and rewarding sustainable fishing practices. They want to influence the choices people make when buying seafood, and work with our partners to transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis.

The MSC runs an exciting and ambitious program, working with partners to transform the world's seafood markets and promote sustainable fishing practices. It collaborates with fisher, retailers, processors, consumer and others to drive them to sustainable behavior. It never compromise on the environmental standard we set, or on our independence.
Website:http://www.msc.org/

• Our Video to promote "MSC"

Hong Kong Culture
Hong Kong is a small city but provide a large variety of food and given the reputable praise of “Gourmet paradise” and “World’s fair of food”. Food holds an important place in Hong Kong. As Hong Kong located near the coast, seafood is especially famous in Hong Kong. People always heard Chinese saying that fish and meat is the essential dish (in Chinese有魚有肉) as it indicated a symbol of abundance and prosperity Therefore, people will eat a lot of seafood in Chinese traditional festival.
Source: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/tc/dining/seafood.html (Hong Kong Tourism Board website)


Protection against overfishing in H.K.
In Hong Kong, the use of explosive, toxic substances, electricity, dredging and suction devices for the purpose of fishing are detrimental to fisheries and the marine ecosystem and are prohibited under the Fisheries Protection Ordinance.2


Public Awareness
Although there is a Ordinance to protect the marine, most people are not aware the problem of overfishing, they do not know the consequences and mainly concern about the quality of seafood. A label which related about seafood is used under the accredited fish farm scheme carry out by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in 20053. It is a label to ensure the quality of locally cultured fish in order to regain consumer confidence.


In the 1970s, Hong Kong's commercial fishery reach the peak, Hong Kong waters were incredibly rich just decades ago with manta rays, hammerhead sharks, giant grouper etc. Due to overfishing, the fishery in Hong Kong declined. The WWF in Hong Kong launched several campaigns to promote marine protection, for instance, Save our Seas Campaign in 2005 and also Bluefin Tuna in Crisis. Unfortunately, it cannot arouse the awareness of the public. 4


Rhetorical strategies and its effectiveness
When people enjoy and love eating seafood, at the same time, the number of marine products become extinction is increasing. It is due to the problem of overfishing.

“Telling and listening to stories…may be the most powerful means for relaying and retaining information, communicating and understanding important messages, and influencing cultural thought.”(By Kathleen Marvin) 5

Our story aimed at shocking people into actions and to persuade and motivate them to buy the products with Marine Stewardship Council labels. In some countries, “Overfishing has not only proved disastrous to fish stocks but also to the fishing communities relying on the harvest”6 . We show how people enjoy eating seafood at the beginning of the video, therefore to recall the audience’s happy memories of eating delicious seafood. Then, we reveal the fact of overfishing problem with the statement of “If we keep on overfishing, fisher will be unemployed by 2050.”7. This will threaten the audience as seafood will soon disappear unless urgent action is taken to make sure that the seafood is comes from a healthy population and harvested in a sustainable non-destructive manner. If the consumers buy seafood with conscience with the Marine Stewardship Council label, they can ensure the fisheries are following the principles of Marine Stewardship Council standards.

Most people in Hong Kong are educated and they are more and more concern about the environment, even some of the environmental protection actions are legislated by law. The Marine Stewardship Council label is the best and most recognizable eco label for marine products we currently have in the world. According to a survey conducted by WWF in 2005 “97% of Cantonese speakers said that they would stop consuming a species if they found out it was endangered.”8 If people know that the products with this label implying that the fishery is following the principles and have sustainable caught, their acceptance of this label will be much higher and as a result they will start to buy the products with this label. In order to enhance the awareness of overfishing problem in the world of the public, we think that with the use of celebrity to promote the MSC labels, it will catch the attention of the public.


Motivation & Altruism

‘Altruism defines how selfish behavior could have evolved. It is applied not only to people (psychological altruism), but also to animals and even plants.’ 9

Nowadays, overfishing is one of the hot topics in everywhere. People only satisfy their needs and put not much effort on protecting the environment, especially the ocean. Overfishing usually destroys not only the sea, but also marine ecosystems. ‘Life on earth is being destroyed at alarming rate, and evidence is mounting of impending disasters such ecological collapse and climate change that threaten as all’. 10 Therefore, we should spread the message that the importance of the altruism and how unselfish behavior of others.

In fact, technological communication is an effective way to convey the altruism messages over the world. In the video, it raises people awareness of protecting the sea as soon as possible. “Initial story must be emotionally moving enough to unleash the narrative impulse in others” (By Kathleen Marvin) . 11When people watch this video, they might feel guilty and sympathy if they keep on buying seafood which is came from overfishing. So, they might change their purchase behavior to buy the seafood with the MSC label to show supporting on this campaign.

The video can boost altruism and build up a global consciousness as it can make people to have sympathy and feel guilty with their selfish behavior. They will not only concern about self-benefit firstly, but also they may seem others as oneself and provide unselfish behavior to others. Indeed, it will have a global impact that people can act a coherent action to echo using the MSC logo to save the sea together. Therefore, this strategy can send the altruism message to the world and encourage people to contribute their effort to our world unselfishly.

Motivates are the reasons that before one take action towards an event.

There are mainly 3 reasons for Hong Kong people to purchase the products with the approval from the MSC.

First of all, it is out of self interest, the popularity of seafood in HK. As aforementioned, Hong Kong people love having seafood. It is a kind of culture and tradition in the festivals. As indicated in the Times magazine, if overfishing continue for 50 years, there will be no supplies of seafood. That means there would be no seafood for Hong Kong people to consume. In view of this, in order to save the sea and while the seafood, Hong Kong people are thus motivated to consume the products approved by MSC. It can extend the time for them to consume the seafood they love most.

Moreover, they act like the environmental protection pioneers. Just like other e-labels’ motivation, if they purchase the MSC approved products, somehow they are protecting the sea from unreasonable exploitation or overfishing. Their thinking is also related to the ethical, responsibility and even social class issues. They think it is political-correct to consume the MSC approved products, otherwise, it is wrong or somehow they may feel guilty for not protect the sea from overfishing. Moreover, they think that they have more power to purchase more-expensive products which are approved by the MSC, so it is the responsibility to protect the sea since they get the power to do so, while others do not have money to do so. Furthermore, they think that acting environmental friendly is also one of the behaviors o middle class or above. So purchasing the products that MSC approved will differentiate them from the other social classes.

Thank you all of you

Thank you again for the useful comments from Mgt3430 classmates and also Mgt2411. We found that it is enjoyable to read your comments, hope you do also when you are reading our blog. The comments are helpful. It makes our blog better. We have chosen the following topics to discuss further. Let’s GO and enjoy.

Some of you ask about which type of marine are going to be extincted. We are going to show some of them to you:

· Bombay duck(九肚魚)

· High-finned grouper(老鼠斑)

· Leopard coral trout(東星斑)

· Humphead wrasse(蘇眉)

· Abalone(鮑魚)

· Caviar (sturgeon) 魚子醬(鱘魚)

· Bluefin tuna(藍鰭吞拿魚)

All of the above we enjoy are going to be extincted. And if we keep ignoring it, the situation would become more serious

Promotion to restaurant

We would promote to the shops and restaurants which have a lot of benefits on selling MSC products. Nowadays, more seafood buyers in Hong Kong give ‘preferred supplier’ status to companies offering MSC-certified fish. The MSC label helps to win customer confidence and loyalty. Customers are willing to buy the MSC- certified seafood than before. Therefore, the sales would be increased if shops and restaurants in Hong Kong sale the seafood having MSC label. Moreover, selling MSC- certified seafood helps the shops and restaurants to build up a positive image in the society. It is because the feelings of MSC label that giving to the public like saving the ocean. The shop and restaurants can earn a high reputation and rise up their sales as they sell MSC- certified seafood.

How the label will be shown? & Will seafood with MSC be more expensive than those without?

The MSC labels are used on packaging, price lists, menus, fish counters and materials highlighting seafood products. Here are the pictures which show the products with MSC labels, including fresh and canned seafood. The fish products with the MSC logo are not more expensive, incidentally, which means that it is just as economical to eat sustainable fish.

Should we organize a “NO Seafood day’?

As some people suggest, Hong Kong should organize campaigns such as ‘no seafood day’ to raise people awareness of protecting ocean. However, we partly agree to hold ‘no seafood day’ in Hong Kong. It is true that large demand of seafood will lead fishers to supply a huge amount of seafood to satisfy their needs. Furthermore, they ignore anything to supply many fishing and finally it leads overfishing. So, ‘no seafood day’ may decrease the demand of seafood and avoid oversupply.

However, the purpose of MSC is not to stop eating seafood and fishing, it aims to raise people attention on the ocean destroyed speedily because of OVERFISHING. Therefore, stop eating seafood is not the main idea of MSC, but promoting using products with MSC is that encouraging fishers correct their fishing methods and be more ethical. Also, this logo aims to increase people sense of protecting the sea. For the long term, the MSC mainly convey message that all people should take responsibility to protect the ocean. So people will act automatically to echo the activity better than punish them or totally change their local culture. The first thing let people echo the logo successful; people understand the overfishing is the one of serious problem to destroy the sea. If people deeply understand the hidden threat, they will try their best to protect the ocean. Therefore, the ocean will be protected, people continue to enjoy the seafood with correct fishing and fishers keep earning money. Eventually, it makes win-win situation.

REFERENCES

1GreenBiz Staff(2009), GreenBiz.com, http://greenercomputing.com

2 The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Fisheries Protection Ordinance, http://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/fisheries/fish_cap/fish_cap_fpo/fish_cap_fpo.html

3 The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Accredited Fish Farm Scheme

http://www.hkaffs.org/en/background.html

4 WWF Hong Kong, Save Our Seas Campaign, http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/marine/?source=fp-leftmenu

5 Kathleen Marvin (2006). Business Narration. JFK University

6 Darrell Tan. 2009. Over Fishing. http://geog-ace.blogspot.com/2009/06/over-fishing.html

7 Monica Fong. 2006. General Education, http://ls.hket.com/hk/liberalStudiesTopicsAction.do?action=listnewscornerdetail&id=ff8080810e799f03010f603c6cdb00d7

8 WWF Hong Kong, Seafood Choice Initiative, http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/seafood/bluefintuna/index.php

9 ‘Altruism-what is it?’ Retrieved from http:// www.altruism .org/about/altruism/

10 ‘Altruism-what is it?’ Retrieved from http:// www.altruism .org/about/altruism/

11 Kathleen Marvin (2006). Business Narration. JFK University