Blue Marine Foundation’s new campaign #FishForTomorrow has become a viral sensation in the Maldives.

The campaign was developed in response to photographs of illegal fishing of nationally protected species. Examples include giant clams and unsustainable mass fishing of important fish like parrotfish.

Maintaining healthy populations of fish on coral reefs is absolutely crucial for the Maldives in its fight against climate change.

Coral reefs with diverse and abundant populations of fish have been scientifically proven to withstand and recover fast from climatic events like coral bleaching far better than overfished reefs.

Protecting vulnerable species from all exploitation and carefully managing others that are sensitive to fishing will help ensure the Maldives’ reefs remain healthy and resilient to the effects of climate change.

The #FishForTomorrow was designed to engage and educate through two bespoke assets – a comparison game and an educational hub with full Dhivehi translation, backed by visually arresting and captivating social media campaigns with assets ranging from video to animation, infographics to memes.

Content from the campaign was seen on social media over 4.5 million times – meaning on average every single person in the Maldives saw #FishForTomorrow on social media nine times during its four- week run.

The campaign became so popular that it became a viral trend for people to post Instagram stories of themselves releasing juvenile groupers and snappers.