Stick It To The Sharks
This poster was a project for Advanced Design, an elective for the Organizational Communication program in De La Salle University-Manila. It aims to inform people about the declining population of sharks due to exploitation.
The population of sharks has dramatically decreased in the last 15 years. An estimated 100-273 million sharks are killed every year, where more than 100 out of 400 shark species are being commercially exploited. Sharks are usually fished for their meat, fins, and cartilage. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, there are approximately 1,041 known species of sharks, rays, and deep-sea chimaera, 30% of which are already endangered, threatened, or vulnerable to extinction. It was reported that Asian countries such as Indonesia and India still lead in commercial shark fishing since 1900s. These sharks are then exported to Hong Kong and Singapore for trading. Pakistan, Japan, Taiwan, Mainland China, and Philippines use shark meat to produce fish balls, tempura, surimi, fish sausage, fish ham, fish cakes, and fish pastes.
Fish ball is a staple snack amongst Asian countries which are usually sold by the streets. Hence, I decided to use fish balls on a stick as an illustration for the advocacy poster because it is a familiar form to Asian people. The elements found in the fish balls are different shark species found all over the world, which are now classified as either vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species. The sauce that covers the fish balls represents the blood of the sharks that have been exploited.
The poster hopes to generate awareness on the actual contents of what an ordinary person eats. Key places such as restaurants, night markets, and train stations are ideal in showcasing the advocacy, to get a better reach for the message.
Illustrated with Adobe Illustrator.
Edited with Adobe Photoshop.
