A question everyone needs to ask themselves when addressing aquatic species conservation.

This week we were tasked with live tweeting a story in real time, and while I can honestly say I did not excel at this task, I think that my story is kind of cute and quirky and I am going to repurpose it when I actually know how to use this technology. This tweet may be just the thing that draws more people into the wonderful world of aquatic species conservation, right!? (sigh, one can dream can’t she?)

Using Twitter is new to me. As I noted in my first Twitter post for this class, I always thought that it was for people with opinions (mostly political ones), and while I have lots of those, I don’t necessarily think that anyone needs to hear them.

I loved tweeting TBH. It allowed me to explore alternate ways to draw people into the projects I am working on. To think about key messaging and what I am really trying to communicate. And, while Twitter may not be where I excel in the realm of social media, it made me think that maybe it could just be a tool for me to use to draw people to my Instagram, Facebook  and project websites where I actually know what I am doing.  

For my tweet I took advice from Gary Vayernchuk. He says, “Document. Don’t Create”, so that is what I did.  I documented what I was doing at that moment, which was starting my journey to create a fish exhibit (thrilling, I know!). I then thought of the Cat dad on Twitter and his story thread, and tried to draw on that style of posting.

I pulled the flow and story development from the 8 Point Story Arc. I tried to set the scene, create the rise of action, and start the quest early in my post.

The protagonist is (obviously) me and the villain is my real life sister, Shaina. Shaina thinks that fish are boring, and I set out to show her that they are not boring. They are, in fact, very cool and beautiful.

I let myself dream in the tweet about what this fish exhibit will look like. I talk about colour, beauty, and glamour, and lead my readers into thinking that this is going to be one pretty little exhibit that I am going to create.

Then I drop the surprise.

It is not that fish are boring. It’s that the one we are creating the exhibit around is … how do I say this?… it’s ‘UGLY’ (gasp!).

Now my quest is not to show that fish are cool, my quest is about how I am going to make this species beautiful and sexy; in order to sell their conservation and protection. This task takes us on a wild ride of ups and downs that are full of information and dialogue that no one see’s coming  (hang on, it gets intense).

I tried to build tension in the thread and get to the point where I ask readers, why does everything have to be pretty and cute for us to pay attention to it? Why can’t we just embrace something that many would deem ‘ugly’ and use it as an advantage? What is it about this fish that people think is ‘ugly’? Is it their colour or their size? Or…. is it their RESTING FISH FACE?

I then tried to pose some questions about beauty standards to the readers. I hope that this will help many of the readers relate to these poor, ‘ugly’ fish, in a funny and sympathetic way.

I then tried to bring this thread and what I consider the first part of the fish story, to a climax. I consider that it is pretty unfair that we hold nature to the same beauty standards that we have for our selves.

I mean, fish can’t get Botox, can they?

So, not only is their habitat slowly being destroyed, their waterways are rising in temperature, they are overfished, and they are commonly held out of the water too long by overzealous fisher people; on top of all of this, we don’t think they are cute enough. And, they cannot even help that because they are limited in their beauty regime.

What is interesting is that that fact alone may actually be the biggest hurdle I need to overcome in my fish exhibition journey.

Can fish get Botox? is a question that is meant to throw the reader for a loop, to catch them a bit off guard, make them laugh, but also make them think. I tried to add an interactive component where people can vote.

Bringing it to a close, I wanted to sign off, but leave an opportunity to pick the story back up at a later date and build on it. I wanted to leave the readers on a little bit of a cliff hanger in order to keep their interest. I re-introduce my sister, the villain, who may not actually be the villain after all. She calls and says she has some ideas for how we can make our ‘ugly’ fish sexy and maybe, a little less boring.

I hope readers will stay with us as we figure out how to make people care about these ‘ugly’, but important fish.