Sustainable Fishery Ecosystem

The Georgia Conservancy has been working to protect the North Atlantic right whales.
They partnered with the DGMT 732 - Facilitating Creative Thinking class of Summer 2023, to develop innovative ideas and directions to address this challenge.

I was part of a diverse team to analyze the root causes of the extinction of the North Atlantic Right Whales and to deliver potential solutions.

Client Recognition

The Problem

North Atlantic right whales are a critically endangered species of marine mammals. Unfortunately, their population has been declining rapidly in recent years due to a variety of factors. Despite these challenges, efforts are still underway to protect and conserve these magnificent creatures.

Entanglements

Vessel Strikes

Unusual Mortality Events

The Challenge

"How can we support the conservation of the North Atlantic right whale while sustaining the local fishery ecosystem in South East U.S.A.?"

My Role

I conducted secondary research and engaged with industry stakeholders to understand the challenges facing the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

I facilitated a brand diagnostic workshop to evaluate existing strategies and collaborated with the team in brainstorming innovative solutions. Additionally, I was also a part in designing and facilitating a co-creation workshop, bringing together stakeholders to develop actionable conservation strategies.

Kickoff

We conducted secondary research, background research on the clients, and individual interviews with additional stakeholders. With this information, we led the Brand Diagnostics Workshop to address the big question aka the challenge.

Charles Mcmillan (Retired Coastal Director, Georgia Conservancy) during the Brand Diagnostics Workshop.

Courtney Reich (Coastal Director, Georgia Conservancy) during the Brand Diagnostics Workshop.

Opportunities

From this workshop, hundreds of ideas, questions, and pain points were gathered through various activities such as Dreams and Nightmares; Pains, Gains, Questions and Ideas; Time VS. Impact Map and were refined into 3 core opportunities.

1. DEVELOP SUSTAINABLE BLACK SEA BASS LOCAL MARKET

Generate local Black Sea Bass demand.

Collaborate with local:

Farmers' markets
Restaurants
Schools
Grocery stores

Establish a direct sales channel to ensure fresher produce and valuable

market insights.

Create and promote famous local recipes for BSB
Hold cultural events/activities
Create a brand for sustainable BSB

2. EDUCATE AND ENGAGE

LOCAL CONSUMERS

Educate consumers on sustainable seafood.

Utilize storytelling to generate consumers' empathy
Establish definition of "whale-friendly sustainable seafood"
Utilize infographics
Make supply chain transparent

Make Black Sea Bass a cultural icon.

Create and promote famous local recipe for BSB
Hold cultural events/activities
Create a brand for sustainable BSB

3. ENABLE AND EMPOWER FISHERY WORKERS

Bring new income sources for fishery workers

Utilize storytelling to generate consumers' empathy
Establish definition of "whale-friendly sustainable seafood"
Utilize infographics
Make supply chain transparent

Optimizing sustainable fishery practices

Make ropeless gear affordable
Provide training and certification
Build a standardized approval process for sustainable black sea bass fishing

Opportunities gathered from Brand Diagnostics Workshop mapped on 2X2 Time VS. Impact Map

Co-Creation Workshops

Based on our conversation with the client, and taking into consideration the opportunies we decided to pursue two co-creation workshops inviting the Consumers (Educate & Engage Local Consumers) and Restaurant Industry (Develop Sustainable BSB Local Market) as stakeholders.

Consumers during Co-Creation Workshop

Consumers during Co-Creation Workshop

As a team, we developed several activities to gain insight into customers' issues and their positive and negative experiences with fish. We had them create their ideal restaurant menus and map out their customer journey, helping us identify areas for improvement.

Insights

Consumers are highly concerned about food safety, favoring fresh, clearly packaged fish over processed options like canned or frozen fillets. Poor packaging, outdoor markets, and unclear product information raise suspicion. They dislike long online delivery times and are hesitant to invest extra time or money in seafood, despite enjoying it.

Some additional insights we uncovered show that consumers often rely on sensory cues and assumptions to assess product quality such as,

Associating updated menus with freshness or long lines with tasty food. They're willing to pay extra to support local businesses, valuing personal connections, food safety, and high quality. Their purchasing decisions are shaped by their lifestyles; while some prefer fresh fish from farmers' markets, others opt for the convenience of pre-seasoned or delivered seafood. Emotional factors also influence choices, as food trucks offer both delightful surprises and a sense of nostalgia, making the

experience memorable.

Solutions

We identified several solutions from the workshop, such as:

1. Make consumer understand the quality from the details.

2. Make local products more convenient for consumers.

3. Let consumers get emotional value in experiences.

4. Provide points or discount cards for farmers' market consumers.

To deepen our understanding, we took the next step by organizing another co-creation workshop, this time engaging directly with restaurant experts. Their insights and expertise helped us gather even more valuable data, allowing us to refine our approach and ensure our solutions were tailored to the real-world needs of the industry.

Experts from restaurant industry during Co-Creation Workshop

Experts from restaurant industry during Co-Creation Workshop

We applied various tools, including the Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas and Lotus Blossom, which helped us uncover what we could do next such as:

1. Organize a Culinary Showcase and Engagement Event.

2. Create Multi-Platform Awareness Campaigns.

3. Create Documentaries or Educational Series.

4. Chef + Fisher Meet-ups.

Directions

After gathering extensive data, conducting workshops, research, and drawing insights from co-creation and brand diagnostic sessions, we finally identified several potential directions to pursue:

1. Events and Workshops

2. Consumer Facing Strategies

3. Educational Initiatives

4. Marketing and Promotions

5. Partnerships and Collaborations

We went ahead and created an Idea Box; The idea box combines the parameters of a challenge into new ideas (parameters here mean characteristic, factor, variable, or aspect). You choose the number and nature of the parameters and then list variations for each parameter. For this project, the idea box was used to present a vast number of ideas in a simple manner.

New ideas and inventions can merely come from new combinations of existing ideas. Ideas start to emerge almost by accident as the idea box connects current data into thought-provoking new patterns.

Here’s an example of how it works;

Recommendation 1: Black Sea Bass Food Festival

Now, circling back to the five strategic directions we defined earlier, here are some potential ideas for growth: