Once, there was a time when octopuses sat boldly on the seafloor rather than hiding in their dens. This is not the beginning of a fairy tale but, rather, how things used to be in the fishing village of Andavadoaka in south west Madagascar.

Seventy-year-old elder Celestine tells of a time when fishers used to hunt those octopuses and dry them in the sun before travelling to other villages such as Anakao and Ifaty – over 100 miles away – to barter or sell them. They taught their children how to catch the octopus too, continuing the tradition through generations of fisher families.

Today, octopuses hide away from the villagers, 71 per cent of whom rely on fishing as their primary livelihood. Since commercial fishing commenced in Madagascar, it’s put intense pressure on many marine species, including the once-brave octopuses that Celestine speaks of.

Things have changed significantly in these seas. Beyond Madagascar’s white sandy beaches and below its azure waters, corals are bleaching, intense cyclones and droughts are damaging key ecosystems, and industrial fishing is wiping out marine life.

One community in particular is feeling the impact: the semi-nomadic Vezo people who have lived in harmony with the sea for millennia.

“The Vezo community lives with the sea,” explains Symphorien Nihala Maniry Soa, digital media producer at Blue Ventures, who is part of the Vezo people. “Most of the community depends on the ocean.”

The Vezo’s lives are intertwined with the ocean in a way that many Western communities don’t understand – particularly those people living inland or in big cities far removed from nature. For the Vezo, without the sea, everything simply begins to crumble.

Maniry Soa’s memories of a life connected to the waves start at a young age: playing by the shore as a small child. He recalls how, when he was a little older, “we learned how to swim in the shallow water and created some small pirogues and then sailed them in the nearshore.” He remembers how he was frightened of the large, whirling waves when he started going out with his parents to learn to fish at around 11 years old.

For the Vezo, it’s clear that their seas are changing. Fisher Jean Manirisoa remembers how marine ecosystems were thriving when he started going fishing with his father aged 12. Back then, there were plenty of fish and they never needed to travel far to search for their catch. If they brought home a little more than what they needed to eat, they exchanged the extra fish with forest or farming communities.