What it says on the tin.

December 6, 2013 8:22 PM

Celebrities naked with fish. Photography done for the Fishlove campaign which raises awareness about the destruction of the seas and the unsustainable practices that lead to over fishing. Founded by the restaurant, Moshimo and the actresss, Greta Saatchi it gathers celebrity, professional photography and fish to ask the question, "Are you a fish lover?"

Rankin, Alan Gelati and Denis Rouvre have done three collections of celebrity portraiture with sea life in 2011, 2012 and 2013 as part of the Fishlove campaign.

The long list of celebrities who have answered the question, "Are you a fish lover?" with a an unadorned, "yes", include Gillian Anderson, Terry Gilliam and a former Doctor Who companion including a homage to Hokusai's Dream of the Fisherman's Wife.

If you need something not involving nudity and sea life then I urge you to see the professional galleries of Rankin, Alan Gelati and Denis Rouvre. Most of it is SFW but do be discrete with the lingerie.

posted by jadepearl (46 comments total)

I thought fish breathe water.
posted by saber_taylor at 8:24 PM on December 6, 2013 [9 favorites]

The flash interface was clearly designed by either a fish or a celebrity. (I'm leaning towards the fish)
posted by pjern at 8:26 PM on December 6, 2013 [7 favorites]

Hi! I'm actor Troy McClure, you may remember me from such ecological awareness campaigns as 'Save the Deer Tick' and 'Kudzu: The miracle ground cover and cattle feed'...
posted by Grimgrin at 8:27 PM on December 6, 2013 [35 favorites]

"No, what I said is that he sleeps with the fishes! You see..."
posted by entropicamericana at 8:44 PM on December 6, 2013 [5 favorites]

"Do you like fish sticks?"
posted by koeselitz at 8:56 PM on December 6, 2013 [3 favorites]

Maybe they could have, I don't know, posed underwater with live fish? I mean, can you imagine the uproar if someone organized a similar save-the-pandas campaign and had celebrities pose with dead pandas?
posted by oulipian at 8:56 PM on December 6, 2013 [29 favorites]

what is this I don't even
posted by Salvor Hardin at 8:59 PM on December 6, 2013

Fishlove campaign which raises awareness about the destruction of the seas and the unsustainable practices that lead to over fishing.

I was already aware.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has the Seafood Watch Pocket Guide, organized by region (US Only) ( also sushi).
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:18 PM on December 6, 2013 [5 favorites]

"We love these fish so much that we got naked and killed them!"

yes celebrities i will follow your lead

naked death to fish
posted by elizardbits at 9:19 PM on December 6, 2013 [26 favorites]

This campaign being led by a sushi restaurant is a bit like NRA-lead efforts to reduce gun violence. I have this great solution, but I don't think they're going to like it...

I'm sure the restaurant would argue that their fish are all sustainably caught, but if the ocean is already overfished, then even gently removing a few more fish is not at all sustainable. Further, by running a campaign that makes seafood sexy, they run the risk of having more people want to eat seafood, not all of whom will care about or be able to afford the higher price of sustainable seafood.
posted by Tsuga at 9:20 PM on December 6, 2013 [7 favorites]

I came for the Troy McClure reference, was not disappointed. However this campaign seems poorly thought out.
posted by arcticseal at 9:29 PM on December 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is like the "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" people posing in furs.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:30 PM on December 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

It's not often that a cod piece joke just basically jumps out of the water, filets, seasons and sears itself before nestling down into a bed of wilted arugula, but this seems to be about as close as we'll get today.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:32 PM on December 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

huh, I had seen that picture of Gillian Anderson with the eel a few days ago and assumed it was a Hannibal tie-in / promotion...
posted by dilaudid at 9:38 PM on December 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Today I learned that I'm not very good at recognizing fish nor celebrities, but I do enjoy a good Troy McClure reference.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:40 PM on December 6, 2013 [9 favorites]

Yeah, I wish they could've not killed fish for this. Even if they bought fish that would've otherwise been eaten, it still feels wrong. They're cool-looking photos, and I'm glad they're bringing attention to this cause, but...
posted by limeonaire at 9:44 PM on December 6, 2013

From Liartown, A Probing to Remember.
posted by JHarris at 9:49 PM on December 6, 2013 [3 favorites]

"Are you a fish lover?"

"You mean like Uncle Junior?"
posted by KokuRyu at 9:53 PM on December 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

I also like how there's a little ranking in the bottom left corner telling you that for most of the pictures, the fish species photographed aren't sustainable choices. I wonder why they didn't have anyone posing with #1 sustainable tilapia.
posted by Tsuga at 9:56 PM on December 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

I remember my first experience with conger eel. I was in a sushi restaurant and there were these eels glumly treading water in a tank. "Is that a conger eel?" I asked. The sushi chef said, why yes, it was, and then reached into the tank, pulled out an eel, pinned its head to a wooden cutting board with a knife, skinned it alive, sliced it up, and served the pieces to me still squirming.

Later on, having forgotten this important lesson, I asked if that was an octopus in the tank, bundled up in a net...
posted by KokuRyu at 9:58 PM on December 6, 2013 [4 favorites]

If I see one more mefi post with the title "what it says on the tin" (...)
posted by Halogenhat at 10:08 PM on December 6, 2013

I do wonder why so many of these dead fish come from unsustainable fisheries.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:12 PM on December 6, 2013

huh, I had seen that picture of Gillian Anderson with the eel a few days ago and assumed it was a Hannibal tie-in / promotion...

Season 2 Episode 3: Unagi
posted by The Whelk at 10:13 PM on December 6, 2013

I think it's spelled "Scacchi", and she had a child with her cousin, which is creepy.
posted by Brocktoon at 10:27 PM on December 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

If I see one more mefi post with the title "what it says on the tin" (...)

Then... what?
posted by mazola at 10:28 PM on December 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

...then the antecedent clause of this conditional will be true!
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 10:32 PM on December 6, 2013 [8 favorites]

If they went for sustainable fish, the sardines would leave very little to the imagination.
posted by benzenedream at 11:54 PM on December 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Needs more Kanye.
posted by Caskeum at 12:26 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

All those fish are dead.
posted by bicyclefish at 12:32 AM on December 7, 2013

Just disgusting. I do not like naked people with fish.
posted by Area Man at 2:29 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

ALL THESE FISH
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
FLOUNDERS
ATTEMPT NO
POSINGS THERE
posted by Auden at 2:38 AM on December 7, 2013 [3 favorites]

Just disgusting. I do not like naked people with fish.

I used to think they were fine -- but then I saw that Japanese video of the woman in the bath with a cooch full of li'l fishes.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:19 AM on December 7, 2013

I love dogs. I do not, however, drown them and wear them as scarves.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:44 AM on December 7, 2013 [6 favorites]

well, I didn't recognize any of those celebrities.
posted by jpe at 4:27 AM on December 7, 2013

How insulated from day to day reality do you have to be before posing naked with a dead fish to support environmental awareness becomes a good idea?
posted by Mooski at 5:23 AM on December 7, 2013 [3 favorites]

Who is behind this? What is their agenda for the environment? Who funds it?

It's incredibly frustrating, but a lot of anti-overfishing propaganda is fueled by the oil industry, which helps them deflect attention from rising ocean temperatures as another cause of species depletion. And even nice things like the Montery Bay Aquarium's list are blunt instruments, nowhere near nuanced and localized and specific enough to create a restructured fishing industry, which is what is needed to help preserve ocean health.

The campaign is also kind of repulsive. It sort of makes you think celebrities will do just about anything.
posted by Miko at 5:32 AM on December 7, 2013 [6 favorites]

I came for the Troy McClure reference, was not disappointed.

I cried tears of joy to see he was mentioned in tags.
As it right and proper.
posted by Mezentian at 5:32 AM on December 7, 2013

I don't see much love in those faces (celebrities and fishes) more death and dislike of cold sliminess
posted by angrycat at 6:01 AM on December 7, 2013

I can't decide if this was a coke idea or a weed idea.

Surely that's a bad sign.
posted by ryanrs at 7:39 AM on December 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

Gillian Anderson does not look like she's completely confident that this photo session is such a good idea after all.
posted by vverse23 at 7:50 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

The cult of Dagon has really updated their look
posted by fraxil at 8:12 AM on December 7, 2013 [4 favorites]

"We weep for the bird's cry, but not for the blood of a fish. Blessed are those who have voice."

posted by byanyothername at 9:25 AM on December 7, 2013

HELLO RORY.

But I suspect that wasn't the point of this campaign.
posted by Space Kitty at 11:12 AM on December 7, 2013

Oh good, another professional photographer's website with inscrutable design. Do they teach this in photography school?
posted by neuron at 11:42 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

> Even if they bought fish that would've otherwise been eaten, it still feels wrong.

I'm so naieve. I thought the fish would have been eaten after the pictires were taken. Now I realise that I was most likely wrong. What a waste.
And raising awareness? I don't think this is the way.

Killing fish to show that killing fish is problematic is problematic.

Also:
This is not posing with sea life, this is posing with sea death.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:46 PM on December 7, 2013

It's kind of odd that the original post didn't link to the actual policy change being advocated here, the European Commission's Common Fisheries Policy reform of 2009-2012 (actually voted upon in 2013). Apparently, it's an ongoing process, but progress is being made.

The point of the campaign, although apparently inspired by nude-celebrity PETA campaigns, is not to claim that Every Fish Life Is Precious So Stop Killing Fish You Murderers à la PETA, but that fish populations are being overharvested at a level that threatens extinction or near-extinction for several species, and that a collective political solution is necessary. So sacrificing a couple of dozen individual fish in order to get the word out to a public that might otherwise find the white papers on the subject a bit dull would seem worth it.

Unfortunately, it seems that the ratio of WTF-is-this to Let's-find-out-more-about-why-these-famous-people-are-all-doing-this-bizarre-thing is a bit too high to call this campaign an unqualified success. But if you eat fish, or are okay with other people eating fish, then why would it seem so morally problematic for someone to pose with a fish, so that that fish's brethren and their descendants might have some kind of future?
posted by skoosh at 4:37 PM on December 14, 2013