4FJ is a different kind of campaign

4FJ is a different kind of campaign. With so many environmental messages hitting us today, this campaign aims to remind us all what a healthy ocean means to our way of life and then help us do something, right here, right now, to save them.

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Step 1: Admit We’ve Have a Problem

Grouper, commonly known locally by names such as kawakawa and donu, are an important source of protein for our communities. Groupers, sought after by urban residents and tourists alike, are also commercially valuable to Fiji’s economy. The fish is just hmm, mmm good. But as our population grows and the demand for both food and income grows, these fish are disappearing all across Fiji.

This is a fish that is a staple of village diets, that has been part of Fiji’s island culture for hundreds of years, and one of a ways rural community can make money for basics needs, is going away. That means the kids in the village will be less healthy with less protein to eat. That means our people will have less fish to sell and support their families. That also means our cultural traditions will be harder to maintain. Can you imagine how your next visit to the village will be if they can’t serve fish?

Bottom line: Unless action is not take to better manage these fish, which help support our villages, our culture and our economy, these fish face a bleak future. True story.

Step 2: Make the Pledge

These fish reproduce predictably every year at the same time. So if we don’t eat the fish when during the time, and let them release literally millions and millions of eggs instead, the fish populations will begin to rebound. So 4FJ is asking people from all walks of life, from our villages to our fish markets to our board rooms to our government offices to take a simple pledge: “I will not to eat, buy or sell grouper from July through September.” These are the months that grouper reproduce.

Step 3: Join the Movement

The goal of the pledge is to let these fish reproduce and fill our fish baskets for years to come. But this campaign wants to do more than just collect names and talk about fish biology. While people are stepping forward to do the right thing, it is important to remind ourselves why this campaign is so important. To remember that 4FJ is not about fish, it is about us. The campaign team will shine a spotlight on the people who are taking the pledge. We want to know why saving Fiji’s grouper is important to you. We want to know what it means to you, your family, your village, your island, your country. We realize that there are so many environmental messages coming at you right now. Save this, stop that. What we often forget in our busy lives is why these issues are so important.

So a key part of the 4FJ campaign work will be empowering ocean champions, who are making the pledge, to tell their story, from community members to business leaders to cultural and political leaders to fishermen to chefs to urban professionals, to mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers.

So visit www.4fj.com.fj to hear the stories of why this fish is important to our way of life, share your own and join the movement.

Campaign Team

SeaWeb Asia Pacific, a regional nonprofit organization that specializes in innovative communication initiatives, designed and is coordinating the 4FJ campaign. SeaWeb AP is located at 49 Gladstone Rd in Suva, if you want to come by and meet the team.

But the campaign is built on a dynamic partnership between the private sector, research institutions, government departments, non-governmental organizations and communities. Key partners include the Society for the Conservation of Reef Fish Aggregations, the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network, the Fiji Department of Fisheries, the Wildlife Conservation Society Fiji, Conservation International, the WWF South Pacific Program, Mamanuca Environment Society, the University of the South Pacific Institute of Applied Science and the University of Hong Kong.

And as the campaign grows, we hope the campaign partners will grow as well.

4fj.org.fj