It’s early July in Malta and I’m standing at the foot of the historic Fort St Elmo in the capital city of Valletta.

Stand on the shoreline and listen.

The history of Kingston-upon-Hull, in northern England, has always been shaped by water.

Marhaba!

The ocean is everything to me. It inspires my work, my play, my passions. As a photographer I look to the ocean as an everchanging stimulus that helps fuel my creativity.

Half a year ago, I moved from my life in Scotland’s bustling capital city to a little house on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the North Sea.

For many, the sea represents freedom, adventure, or a simple escape.

I hadn’t thought much about what the X in womxn might mean until I joined eXXpedition.

What do you picture when you hear maritime history?

Lionfish are both strange and beautiful creatures.

"Here more than anywhere else – It is as if space, aware of its own inferiority with respect to time, responds to it with the only property that time does not possess: with beauty.

Soundscapes

Nc'nean whisky embodies the spirit of the Scottish Highlands and the deep-rooted connections between the land, sea, and culture.

Painting the landscape

Over the past five years, I’ve had the privilege of creating music with whales and dolphins, exploring that profound power to deepen our connection with blue spaces.

Orkney’s Scapa Flow, a massive natural harbour, played a crucial role as a naval base during both World Wars.

Many years ago, the waters of Plymouth Sound were in much better health than they are today, the sandy areas were covered in seagrass down to 7m depth, the two rivers that flow into Plymouth Sound were full of native oysters and the fish life was abundant.

Scotland’s expansive coastline has a personality like no other.

“The sea is the most important thing, it’s part of my life, it’s everything... it is a vital cycle in our area and part of our identity”, says Federico* a fisher in Lira, Galicia, the northwest corner of Spain where the Atlantic’s wrath is formidable, the air pure, and forested mountains dotted with terracotta-roofed pueblos (towns) and Romanesque churches dip into the sea.

The climate and nature crisis affects the lives and prospects of young people worldwide.

Nestled against the North Sea, the beachfront of Aberdeen, Scotland, was once known primarily for its windswept, industrial stretches, but has undergone a remarkable transformation since 2020.

This seastory is adapted from an article originally written by the authors for The Conversation

If you were to stand on the breakwater that protects the entrance to Malta’s Grand Harbour and look out at sea, would you think of the multitude of shipwrecks that dot the seabed?

On Sunday, 8 March 2020, aged 64, I became the oldest woman to have rowed any ocean, a journey I undertook with my rowing partner, Ann Prestige.

Oceans and their rich biodiversity have long been integral to humanity’s development, as our dependence on the sea is wide-ranging and richly layered, from transport routes to cultural practices.

Cornish communities have flourished, dwindled and regrown, but the Helford Estuary has flowed steady throughout the centuries.

I was born in Malawi, where three generations of family trampled the dusty paths before me.

One of the most important and least understood causes of the climate and biodiversity crisis is our debt and interest-based monetary system.