Resn and Sea Shepherd Unveil Environmental Call-To-Action “Below the Surface AR”

Raw, Heartbreaking AR Experience Exposes Fishing Industry’s Hidden Cost

Digital agency Resn and marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd have created Below the Surface AR to raise awareness about the harsh reality of legal commercial fishing. (Graphic: Business Wire)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand--()--Bycatch—a term coined by the fishing industry that means anything caught by fishing boats that isn’t the target species. That innocent-sounding word hides a brutal reality: billions of unwanted animals are slaughtered every year to put fish on your plate.

About 40% of worldwide fish catch is bycatch. Birds, turtles, dolphins, whales and countless other species are caught by fishing vessels and then dumped back into the ocean, dead or dying.

Now, digital design and experience studio Resn and environmental non-profit Sea Shepherd have joined forces to create Below the Surface AR—a shocking augmented reality experience that aims to raise awareness by putting users at the center of the harsh reality of commercial fishing.

Below the Surface AR transports you beneath the waves to experience the cost of bycatch for yourself. Zooming in from a bird’s-eye view of the Earth to the depths of the sea, the journey starts beneath the tranquil ocean before being disrupted by countless dolphins struggling in tangled fishing nets. Suddenly, a fishing boat begins discarding bloodied, dead dolphins overboard—victims of bycatch. “Our goal is to shine a light on what bycatch really is: the systematic extermination of sea life,” says Rik Campbell, Resn’s Global Managing Director. “It’s the fishing industry’s dirty little secret and, for some reason, it’s all perfectly legal.”

Below the Surface AR is accessible from a web browser on most mobile phones. “Unlike a native app, which can leverage existing AR platforms, we developed our own AR approach, Jelly, that could be used in a browser,” says Resn Creative Director Simon Jullien.

Below the Surface AR can be viewed on a mobile device by clicking here.

Click here to view the video trailer.

About Resn:

Resn is a global digital experience and design studio specializing in premium innovative web and mobile experiences. Resn has helped some of the world’s best-known brands to tell their stories, including adidas, Lexus, Spotify, Netflix, Airbnb and many more. Resn’s work has won over 300 international awards, including numerous Cannes Lions, Webby Awards, One Show, and D&ADs. Resn was twice named Awwwards Agency of the Year, was a CSS Design Awards Agency of the Year and is a member of the FWA Club 100 and the FWA Hall of Fame.

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Kiri Jewell
kiri@storybylore.com

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Contacts

Kiri Jewell
kiri@storybylore.com