“Get a life at sea” is a recruitment program aimed at getting new people into the fishing industry. We created an organic social media presence through video and photography. The average age of the UK fisher is 45-50 years old and even in a thriving Shellfish port like Bridlington, there can be a stigma attached to going to Sea.
“Get a life at sea” came from conversations with Skipper Karl Price and his wife Jenny. Over Zoom, in UK Lockdown we scratched our heads about this problem and threw some ideas around. Karl and Jenny own the “Isobella M” a Catamaran working out of Bridlington.
The mission? To break down barriers and engage fresh people into the industry as a commercial fisher. We use stories from experienced Skippers and sometimes the harsh realities to paint a balanced Digital picture of the career on Facebook as well as real-world marketing with its own brand, banners, and pos. You can see our Facebook page here.
I am from a Fishing background and I find it easy to get fisher people to open up about their lives at sea and their role in inspiring the next generation, it’s been a real honour to have created this mechanism to not only educate but inspire people to join a crew and roll the dice on a new life.
We are funded on an ad-hoc basis by the Holderness Fishing Industry Group and directly by Skippers who need crew.
The reach of this campaign and the success we have is something we would like to see rolled out across the UK. There is a definite knowledge gap between the present and the future crews that content and social media focus can reduce.
We have seen great success organically and have shown how our model of honesty and interaction has broken down barriers and given people the spark to start a life as self-employed commercial Fisher person.
A critical success, we were featured on ITV Calendar and in the industry paper Fishing News.
