STEVEN G JAMES, DIRECTOR, FEDERATION DESIGN
For organisations working in conservation, raising awareness is only one part of the challenge. Real impact often depends on putting practical tools into the hands of the people closest to the issue. For this client, that meant turning decades of environmental knowledge into something accessible and usable in the field — a resource designed to help fishermen better identify whales and dolphins, understand their behaviours, and take steps to reduce avoidable harm. The result was a detailed printed guide created to support long-term conservation efforts where they matter most: out on the water.
Our client is a non-profit organisation that has been active since the 1930s, with a long-standing mission to protect and conserve whales and dolphins.
Their work spans public awareness, research, and collaboration with national governments, international charities, and other wildlife organisations. A major part of that work focuses on reducing unnecessary whale and dolphin deaths, including those caused by bycatch and ship strikes.
One area identified as especially important was the role of fishermen working out at sea.
It was recognised that the people setting nets and operating in these waters are often in the best position to spot marine wildlife and take preventative action — but only if they have the knowledge and awareness to do so. Without clear guidance, there is a greater risk of whales and dolphins being accidentally caught, injured, or put in danger.
The challenge, then, was to create a practical educational resource that could help bridge that gap. It needed to be accurate, easy to use, and designed specifically for real-world use by fishermen working in active marine environments.
As part of the wider conservation effort, the solution was to create a printed whale and dolphin identification guide in A5 handbook format.
This handbook was designed to act as a practical field resource, helping fishermen recognise different species and better understand what to look out for when setting nets or operating in areas where whales and dolphins may be present.
The guide included the identifiable features of each animal, the key characteristics that distinguish one species from another, the waters and oceans they inhabit or migrate through, and other visible or detectable behaviours that could help with recognition in the field. To support this information, the handbook also included illustrations and diagrams, making the content easier to interpret quickly and clearly.
In total, the printed guide ran to over 100 pages, making it a substantial reference tool rather than a simple leaflet or awareness handout. The aim was to provide something detailed enough to be genuinely useful, while still compact enough to be practical for use in working environments.
The finished handbook is now in circulation and being used by fishermen as part of the organisation’s broader effort to reduce avoidable whale and dolphin deaths.
Because this is a large-scale and long-term conservation initiative, it is not yet possible to measure its full success in a definitive way. Projects of this nature often take time before meaningful outcomes can be properly tracked and assessed.
That said, the guide has already become a tangible part of the organisation’s solution — moving knowledge out of theory and into practice. There have also been anecdotal reports of positive outcomes, including stories of whales or dolphins being released from nets, which suggests the project is contributing to greater awareness and better decision-making on the ground.
This project is a strong example of how design and communication can support conservation in a practical way. By translating specialist wildlife knowledge into an accessible, field-ready handbook, the organisation was able to equip frontline workers with a tool that may help protect marine life over the long term.
