Along the coast where Kenya meets Somalia, a string of coral islands and mangrove-fringed channels marks the edge of an ancient world.

Born in Kampala, Olivia Mary Nantongo is part of a new generation of Ugandan artists reshaping contemporary African portraiture.

The ocean is not always a place of wonder. Sometimes, it is where fear begins.

This piece explores the deep and layered histories of Malindi Bay, a place where land and sea have long shaped human life, movement, and exchange along the Swahili coast.

Fiker Solomon's art uses yarn, jute, natural sponges and palm leaves

Across the stone towns of the East African coast stand carved wooden doors

Along the Swahili coast, the ocean is never just water.

When I first began working along the East African coast, I came with a particular understanding of the ocean.

I first visited Lamu as a small boy in early 1972.

At dawn, the East African shoreline is rarely still.

A beautiful scene of turquoise blue waters against clear skies on a hot Sunday morning along Diani Beach in Kenya.

The water is shallow here, clear enough to see sea grass shifting beneath the surface.

Before sunrise breaks over Lake Victoria, the women are already awake.

The ocean is not silent.

Long before seawalls were constructed and global funding became a standard feature of shoreline protection, women along the Kenyan coast practiced a sophisticated form of shoreline management.

In the still-dark dawn on Mozambique Island, Fátima Celestino rises before the sun. At 68 years old, she has lived by the sea since childhood.

At low tide, the reef appears before the boats.

In many coastal communities in Tanzania, long-standing cultural norms have traditionally placed men as the sole providers for their families.

Chombo hakiendi ikiwa kila mtu anapiga makasia yake—a boat does not move forward if everyone is rowing in their own way.

Since I was a child, I have always appreciated the sea for leisure, without realizing the amount of material and immaterial meanings it hosts. But deep down, I felt a connection.

As far back as I can remember, I have been navigating the ocean surrounding the Galápagos Islands. 

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.

I am a Maritime Archaeologist.

Stand on the shoreline and listen.

In 1574, Spanish navigator Juan Fernández set sail from the port of Callo, Peru, heading south to the city of Valparaíso, Chile.

In late 2022 and early 2023, I travelled to the Andaman Islands of Thailand, a place where the sea shapes daily life.

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

Since I was a child, I have always appreciated the

Marhaba!

The night of June 8, 1708 marked a radical change in Colombian history territory and maritorium.

James Wharram was the British pioneer of ocean sailing multihulls.

In Polynesia, ocean heritage is the base of our culture.

In the face of mounting environmental challenges, I have come to realize how important the role of women is in driving sustainable solutions and protecting our ocean ecosystems.

Like many women, I am several roles in a single person: mother, wife, housewife, worker, social leader, and micro-entrepreneur, but one of the most important, and I say this with great pride, is that I am a woman of the sea.

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.

I live on the most isolated inhabited island in the world.

There’s something about Jacqueline Winters that stuck with me.

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.

After a long week of school, students from high schools across Palau pack overnight bags and gather at a local meeting spot in town.

Growing up, I was captivated by the idea of becoming an ocean explorer.

We gather in the garden of the RahVeshi Programme staff house, a traditional Maldivian home nestled on Makunudhoo Island in the far north of the Maldives.

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?

In a world that often chooses to divide, organise, and categorise, what does it mean to be a woman in conservation?

The oceans have always been more than just blue horizons; they are bridges for shared experiences, lifelong memories, and regulators of human emotions.

That was the creative brief I received from Rip Curl Indonesia when they commissioned me to create an art piece for their new store opening at Canggu Beach in Bali: to connect customers to the ocean through a captivating visual experience.

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.

Have you ever really considered how grand the open oceans are?

Ocean acidification is one of climate changes’ “invisible ghosts” haunting our ocean.

Soundscapes

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

This expedition, which aimed to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent almost ended in tragedy when one of the expedition ships, the Endurance, became trapped in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea in 1915.

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.

The sensation of water—its coolness, its weight, its embrace—resonates deeply with our emotions and memories.

The deep sea is the largest and least explored ecosystem on our planet.

As far back as I can remember, I have been navigating the ocean surrounding the Galápagos Islands.

Within the depths of our oceans lies a valuable resource often overlooked: seaweed.

The immense potential of Africa’s ocean resources is clear, offering opportunities for economic growth, job creation, and enhanced food security.

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.

Humans are amazing.

A silent crisis is unfolding beneath the waves of our ocean.

Places mapped in the mind

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

It is not often one stumbles upon a technology that has the ability to revolutionize the way we view, interact, and learn about our oceans.

We have found ourselves increasingly distanced from the wild embrace of the sea; bound by concrete, fettered by wealth, and hindered by our fears and inhibitions.

Yesterday in La Paz, México, I had the immense fortune of witnessing a humpback whale dance in front of me, its massive tail peeking out repeatedly as it waved, seemingly greeting anyone passing by.

How do you connect with the ocean?

I was initially drawn to the field of marine conservation, like many marine scientists of my generation, by the captivating documentaries of David Attenborough and popular movies like “Finding Nemo”, which showcase the mesmerising beauty beneath the waves.

Seventeen-year-old Maël Baillif and teenagers from across New Caledonia teamed up last year to tell government decision-makers why they feel it’s important to protect the area’s majestic marine environment.

“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.

One January evening in 2022, after a dusty eight-hour drive from Windhoek, I arrived at the end of the road in Lüderitz – the distinctive Namibian town where the ocean meets the desert.

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

The Pacific Northwest, encompassing the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and the Canadian province of British Columbia, are rich with indigenous history and archaeological sites that can give the public a glimpse into the past, but more importantly, make up a part of indigenous identity and culture in the present.

If you were to walk through my childhood home, you wouldn’t question why I ended up becoming a marine biologist.

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.

Pitcairn: the tuff island

Journey through the mangroves...

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

Be wary before the ocean

Part One: Clint's Call.

The names and locations in this article have been changed to protect the identity of the people and the locations of the shark sanctuaries.

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?

Something remarkable happens when we come into direct physical contact with saltwater.

"Exceeding definition and measurement, [w]ater is H₂O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one, but there is also a third thing, that makes it water and nobody knows what it is."

The point at which the land and water connect holds special significance for me.

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.

“In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.” -- Wangari Maathai, 2004

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.

Experience Egypt

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.

As the world witnesses the alarming global decline of coral reefs, a surge of restoration projects has emerged worldwide.

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