Imagine global coastlines teeming with fish. All the species, all the shapes, all the sizes, all the colours, all the species. A spectrum of life and abundance. Swimming through channels and inlets, coves, and shallows. Darting through seagrass meadows and mangrove roots. Shoaling, glinting in the sunlight, reflecting life and vitality.  Tropical coastlines and cooler waters, productive and healthy, resilient, replenishing and plentiful. 

More life than most of us could ever comprehend. Thriving coastlines are perhaps seen rarely today – a thing of the past. But, hopefully the future too, if we act.

Seas filled with enough life for people to prosper and thrive. Feeding communities, creating culture and tradition, the foundation of coastal lives. A shared and sustainable resource, that historically built the salty character of ocean people in all nations. 

A resource that sustained and enriched local communities until the dawn of the industrialisation of fishing. A new type of fishing that changed the very makeup of our seas and, in turn, those that rely on local ocean abundance. 

It’s shocking just how much our seas have changed. Inshore areas that once fed nations and built communities have been depleted to a shadow of their former selves. Ripples and waves on the surface remind us of the dynamic life that used to teem beneath. 

Fishers now need to go further to catch fewer fish. Outcompeted by the supertrawlers and quota barons: faceless, corporate forces, sweeping the sea of fish before local fishers have the chance to compete. Illegal and unregulated pirates take huge quantities of fish beneath the radar, adding immense pressure on both the ecosystem and those trying to make an honest living.