Hear the voices of five resolute fisherwomen – mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, nurturers, feeders, providers, leaders – tell their Story of resilience in the face of social and environmental injustice.
Stand in solidarity and join them in the fight to affirm their role as ocean custodians and protectors ...
'Access to the sea is my livelihood, my customary right, my spiritual right'
The Story emerges with the silhouettes of traditional fisherwomen at the shore, bathed in the light of a blood moon. These women are harvesting intertidal resources at spring low tide, just as generations of their foremothers did before them, to provide food.
As the documentary evolves, the Story of each fisherwoman weaves the complexities of their relationship with the ocean, their communities and traditional fisheries. They must use their local ecological knowledge to sustain themselves and seek diversified livelihoods in a changing world fraught with inequity. It becomes evident that the connection they nurture with the sea is not merely for sustenance, but a sincere cultural and spiritual bond that ultimately leads to stewardship through advocacy and activism.
Like the moon draws the tides, so each woman commands her customary rights to the ocean and the human rights of her fisher peoples.
'if there wasn't food, then my mother would take her hand-line and stand by the shore, to see if she could catch a fish, to put food on the table for her children'
'The tide is turning for us... there must still be for generations to come. there must still be.'
The resilience of fisher peoples in the face of social and environmental injustice has become their Story.
Their fight for recognition as ocean custodians has withstood historical and structural marginalisation, existential threats including ocean grabbing and discriminatory policies, and environmental harms posed by ocean exploitation.
Ocean health and human well-being are inextricably linked. Small-scale fisheries support 492 million livelihoods worldwide and provide critical food and nutritional security to the global population.
Harms to the ocean disproportionately threaten the culture, livelihoods and human rights of fisher peoples, with women and children most affected.
'This water doesn't belong to you. It belongs to us all. And it belongs to no-one.'
Amplify the voices of small-scale fishers as they affirm their ocean stewardship. Share their Story.
Challenge practices that endanger ocean health and the well-being of coastal communities.
Mobilise against environmental racism and advocate for the human rights of fisher peoples.
Choose to know the full Story behind your seafood. Support small-scale fisher livelihoods ...
'I will fight, even if i have to fight alone, for the survival of the fishers and the fishery.'
Small-scale fishers continue to resist marginalisation, ocean grabbing, forced exclusion from their ancestral fishing grounds, discriminatory polices, inequitable rights allocation and the steady onslaught of environmental harms inflicted by industrial fisheries, fossil fuel exploration and exploitation, pollution, coastal mining and development.
Support our friends who are seeking justice for small-scale fisher peoples ...
Fish With A Story - The Documentary is proudly presented by ABALOBI and produced in collaboration with Amehlo Productions
