Marine Stewardship Council

The Marine Stewardship Council is an international non-profit working to end overfishing. Their blue fish tick label appears on certified sustainable seafood products across UK supermarket shelves, restaurants, and fishmongers: a simple way for people to know the fish they’re buying comes from a well-managed, sustainable source.

We first worked with MSC in 2021, shooting recipe content with James Strawbridge around Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall for their annual Sustainable Seafood September campaign. It was a relatively small brief: a series of recipe films featuring locally caught, MSC-certified ingredients, cooked and served in the places where they were landed.

That first project set the tone for everything that followed. Within a year, MSC invited us to Shetland for the most ambitious shoot we’ve ever been part of. Since then we’ve produced documentary content, a TV ad, an awards ceremony film, and a national billboard and digital campaign. Four years of sustainable seafood video and campaign work, each chapter building on the last.

All Hands on Deck — Shetland, 2022

In 2022, MSC asked us to spend ten days in Shetland for their most ambitious sustainability video production to date. A full digital series and their first ever TV advertisement.

The brief was ambitious. The TV ad would promote the MSC blue fish tick: the label that tells shoppers their seafood comes from a certified sustainable fishery. Alongside it, we’d produce a documentary series following the fishing communities who make that certification possible, plus recipe content with James Strawbridge cooking with the ingredients Shetland is famous for.

Shetland is a remarkable place to work. Remote, exposed, and stunningly beautiful. The light changes constantly. The landscape feels like it could be anywhere in the North Atlantic, and then you turn a corner and find a harbour full of working boats and a community that’s been fishing these waters for generations.

What made the content special was the people. We spent time with scallop fishermen, crab fishermen, marine scientists, and harbour communities who opened their doors and their boats to us. George Andrew Williamson, a scallop fisherman on Whalsay Island, was one of many contributors who brought the story to life: genuine, warm, and passionate about what sustainable fishing means for Shetland’s future.

James cooked throughout: scallop skewers with chicken butter, a smoky brown crab stew in the harbour, apple-smoked scallops with Scalloway haggis, and a sustainable seafood feast at Busta House Hotel to thank everyone who’d been part of the journey. Dr Beth Mouat from the Shetland UHI explained the science behind fisheries management, connecting the day-to-day work of the fishermen to the bigger picture of ocean conservation.

Ten days, multiple content strands, a TV ad, and a documentary series. It remains one of the most rewarding projects we’ve been part of.

MSC UK Awards — Fishmongers’ Hall, 2023

For the 10th anniversary of the MSC UK Awards, we produced the film that opened the evening at Fishmongers’ Hall in London.

The production took us from Newlyn to Brixham to London, interviewing past award winners about what sustainable fishing means to them and how the industry has changed over the decade. Each conversation brought a different perspective: fishermen, suppliers, retailers, scientists, all connected by a shared commitment to protecting what’s in our seas.

Watching the film play to a room full of industry leaders and partners was a rare experience for us. We don’t often get to sit in the audience while our work screens. Seeing the reaction, hearing the room respond to the stories we’d captured: that stays with you. It was a brilliant evening celebrating the work that so many people put into protecting our oceans, and we were proud to have our film at the heart of it.