Somewhere in New Zealand, someone is waiting for fish and chips.
Maybe they’re leaning on the counter, watching the fryer bubble, or perhaps they’re flicking through a pile of old fishing and boating magazines. Either way, they glance up – and there it is on the wall: The New Zealand Seafood poster.
After nearly 50 years, the poster is a genuine salt-encrusted – and possibly fat-splattered – staple of Kiwi takeaway bars. First produced in 1977 by the NZ Fishing Industry Board (FIB), the original featured 28 species illustrated by cartoonist Eric Heath who celebrated his 101st birthday last year. No word on whether fish’n’chips were served.
Through various iterations, including Terry Hann’s 1994 fully photographed version with 71 species, the poster has served as a visual menu of what’s pulled from our waters and plated up for dinner. But it’s never been just about decoration; it was designed to educate by helping New Zealanders understand what seafood they were buying and how to cook it. Early versions were accompanied by New Zealand Seafoods: A Buying and Catering Guide.
It was a marketing masterstroke. “Enjoy fish, the family dish” became the country’s seafood slogan. Alison Holst, one of our first celebrity chefs, stood at the helm of the FIB home economics unit test kitchen in Wellington, producing recipes for dishes that would land on family tables across New Zealand.
A culture inspired by a campaign started with a poster – one that’s still hanging around on the walls of takeaway bars the length and breadth of Aotearoa. Now, it’s inspired another poster that its creators hope might instigate a culture change.
Late last year, Sustainable Coastlines released Trash Species of Aotearoa New Zealand—think of it as the mutant twin of the NZ Seafood poster, with a sharper bite when you take a closer look.
Then you see a collection of weird but not-so-wonderful creatures including the Yellowtin Tuna, the Cordfish, the Snapperloc Bag, the Baggacouta and the Ringray. Illustrated in watercolours by wildlife artist Erin Forsyth, the species are based on some of the most common items littering NZ coastlines.
That’s informed by data collected as part of Litter Intelligence, the country’s first national litter database, now nearing 7 years old, where citizen scientists trained by Sustainable Coastlines log the type and amount of rubbish they find through beach, freshwater and stormwater monitoring.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, “We cannot improve what we do not measure,” which is a stance Sustainable Coastlines adopted when it developed Litter Intelligence. But there’s more to it than data collection. It also connects individuals and communities and raises awareness of our litter problem.
Sustainable Coastlines started taking action on this in 2008, bringing Kiwis together to reduce plastic pollution through beach clean-ups, education and the litter data gathering. So far, so successful: 1.84 million litres of rubbish collected through 6394 beach clean-ups and litter surveys thanks to 247,786 volunteer hours.
But it’s always a challenge to inspire people to take action on issues which can feel overwhelming.
Communications manager Helen Adams-Blackburn says the organisation is always on the lookout for a bright idea to keep raising awareness of protecting our diverse coastline. So, when Adam Thompson, then creative director at Augusto, came to them with the idea for a new twist on the NZ Commercial Fish Species poster, they were hooked.
“We liked it because it’s a fun take on the idea and one we think actually gets people thinking,” says Adams-Blackburn. “It looks like any sort of natural species poster, but people look again and they think, ‘hang on, there’s something a bit off here,’ which is a great way to engage people in the issue.”
She says it’s a visual way to highlight the threat of the totally unwanted “species” that find their way into our ocean through littering, open bins and down stormwater drains.
“It draws the connection between items we might use on a daily basis and the beaches and wildlife we hope to protect. The message is pretty simple: catch your trash before it fills our oceans, whether that’s changing buying habits or making sure something is disposed of properly.”
Thompson says the idea first took shape during Covid lockdowns when his family, like thousands of others, started walking more along the shorefront, and noticing how much rubbish washes up on beaches.
When he returned to work, Thompson started brainstorming ideas for social and environmental campaigns: “We talked a lot about how good it would be to change people’s behaviour, so when they’re walking along a beach and they see litter, they pick it up. Even if there’s nowhere to put it, they pick it up and dispose of it at home. It’s a simple behavioural change that could make a big difference.”
They discussed the NZ Seafood poster, Thompson noting that given the amount of rubbish in the ocean it was no longer truly representative of what’s in our seas: “We figured, ‘Why don’t we recreate the poster and try to get it into fish and chip shops?’”
Preliminary sketches were done, with bits of rubbish replacing the fish; tropes and names were brainstormed and the whole project sat on a whiteboard for a year “sort of taunting us”, says Thompson.
“Then we hit a quiet patch and I decided we had to make it happen, so I approached Sustainable Coastlines to see if they’d be interested,” he says. “This is a global problem, but we wanted to focus on New Zealand. Sustainable Coastlines is working in this space and while they’re running campaigns, they’re not so big that it was going to get lost among all the other things they’re doing.”
Thompson asked artist Erin Forsyth, Noted natural history and botanical artist, to illustrate the trash species, saying having the data from Litter Intelligence and insights from the Sustainable Coastlines team made this easier.
Forsyth was immediately interested having illustrated posters for other conservation groups.
“Quite often, at the start of those projects, we would look at the fish poster because it’s something that’s already in our collective consciousness for thinking about what’s in our environment and how to represent it,” says Forsyth.
“There’s something fun about looking at a fish and also this idea made it quite accessible for a lot or people. The reality of seeing an animal caught up in plastic, it’s not so easy to look at. Those images are certainly important, but they can make people feel overwhelmed and switch off.
“With this, you’re being playfully invited to participate in keeping the environment that you love and enjoy safe and clean for yourself.”
She says trash species such as the junk fish and cord fish proved most challenging, because different things were being combined into one hybrid creature. Having accurate data helped, though, because Forsyth was able to get specific details right down to the particular types of cords to include. Each illustration took her anywhere from four hours to two days, starting with preliminary sketches and then moving to watercolours on paper.
Everything was hand-painted, leaving a collection of 21 original artworks that were auctioned to raise further funds for Sustainable Coastlines. Print copies of the poster are now available through the Sustainable Coastlines website.
Upcoming beach clean-up events can be found at sustainablecoastlines.org/events
