The Cradle of Fish: Restoring Seaweed and Seagrass Beds | An Easy Guide to Eelgrass Bed Creation, Barren-Ground Countermeasures, and the Value of Blue Carbon

The cradle of the sea: what is a "moba"?

A "moba" refers to a place along the shallow coast where seaweed or seagrass grows in clusters, spreading out like a forest on land. It forms in roughly the range where sunlight reaches the seabed, from a few meters to a little over ten meters deep, and it draws together a surprisingly diverse array of creatures. Fish lay their eggs there, hatchlings grow while hiding within it, and shellfish, shrimp, and crabs make it their home; a moba is truly a "cradle of life" that supports the foundation of the marine ecosystem.

Though we speak of "moba" as one thing, it is divided into several types depending on the plants that grow there. What matters most is the distinction between eelgrass beds, formed by "seagrass" that reproduces by seed, and the forests formed by "seaweed" (macroalgae), which reproduce by spores. The two look similar but belong to entirely different groups of plants, and differ subtly in where they grow and the roles they play.

Eelgrass beds and macroalgal beds: the types of "sea forest"

Eelgrass is representative of "seagrass," which, like plants on land, flowers and reproduces by seed, putting down roots in sandy or muddy seabeds to form colonies. These colonies are eelgrass beds. Forests formed by "seaweed" (macroalgae), relatives of wakame and kelp, meanwhile include the Sargassum beds where Sargassum thrives, the Ecklonia beds where Ecklonia stands dense, and the Eisenia beds of Eisenia kelp, and these develop on rocky seabeds. In the Ministry of the Environment's nationwide survey for FY2018-2020, satellite image analysis estimated macroalgal beds at 1,225.7 km², eelgrass beds at 329.9 km², and the northern-dwelling Phyllospadix beds at 87.8 km².

Eelgrass beds tend to spread across calm, sandy-muddy inner bays, while macroalgal beds tend to spread across rocky reefs closer to the open sea. Since the plants growing there differ, so does the cast of creatures gathered around them. The reason Japan's coastline supports such rich fishing grounds is precisely that these diverse "sea forests" link together in a mosaic along the shoreline. For more on the richness of biodiversity in Japan's coastal waters, see our article on Japan's marine biodiversity.

Why is it called a "cradle"?

There are clear reasons why eelgrass beds are called the "cradle of the sea." First, the dense blades soften the flow of the current, creating a calm space where juvenile fish can rest without becoming exhausted. Second, the shadows cast by countless blades provide hiding places for small creatures that might otherwise be eaten by larger fish. Third, tiny algae and microorganisms attach to the surface of the blades, creating a rich feeding ground for juveniles and shrimp that graze on them. Spawning, nursery, and feeding: the three conditions life needs to grow are all present together in a seaweed/seagrass bed.

Indeed, bigfin reef squid lay clusters of eggs on eelgrass blades, and coastal fish such as rockfish, black porgy, and greenling spend their early days growing up in this grassy forest. For shellfish products found on rocky shores, such as abalone, turban shells, and sea urchins, the seaweed itself is both their staple food and their home. If these beds are lost, these creatures lose the place where they are born and raised, along with their food, all at once. This is precisely why the decline of seaweed/seagrass beds is said to lead directly to a decline in fisheries resources.

More than raising fish: the many functions of seaweed/seagrass beds

The work these beds do is not limited to raising creatures. Being plants, they absorb nutrients dissolved in the water through photosynthesis, purifying it. Their dense blades and roots soften waves and currents, preventing seabed sand from being stirred up, and protecting the coastline. And, as we will look at in more detail in a later section, they also play a role as "blue carbon," locking away, over the long term in seabed mud, the carbon they take in through photosynthesis. Seaweed/seagrass beds have long provided us, free of charge, with multiple gifts spanning fisheries, water quality, disaster prevention, and climate.

The crisis in numbers: decline spreading nationwide

The cradle of the sea is now steadily vanishing from Japan's coastline. This decline is not merely a subjective impression; it appears as clear numbers shown in multiple public surveys.

From 200,000 hectares to 120,000 hectares

According to trends based on the Ministry of the Environment's Basic Survey on the Preservation of the Natural Environment and other sources, the nationwide area of seaweed/seagrass beds in Japan is estimated to have shrunk in stages: from a reported 208,000 hectares in the past, to about 145,000 hectares, and further to about 125,000 hectares. The lost area amounts to tens of thousands of hectares; a simple comparison suggests a sea forest large enough to swallow the whole of Tokyo's 23 wards has vanished. Because of differences in survey methods and scope, the figures vary somewhat, but the long-term trend of major decline is unmistakable.

In recent years, more precise assessments using satellite imagery have also progressed. The Ministry of the Environment's FY2018-2020 survey, analyzing high-resolution satellite images, calculated the national area of seaweed/seagrass beds, excluding some enclosed coastal waters, at 1,643.4 km² (about 164,000 hectares). Simple comparisons become difficult when survey methods change, but this kind of ongoing monitoring is gradually allowing us to map, bit by bit, where these beds are declining and where they remain.

The Seto Inland Sea: signs of recovery, and continuing imbalance

In some regions, encouraging signs are beginning to appear. In the Ministry of the Environment's survey of seaweed/seagrass bed and tidal flat distribution in the Seto Inland Sea (FY2022-2023), the area of these beds was found to be about 16,963 hectares, an increase of about 9% compared with the previous survey (FY2015-2017). This appears to be the fruit of years of "satoumi" (human-managed coastal sea) efforts. However, looking at the breakdown, while eastern bays showed increases, western bays continued to decline, revealing regional imbalance in the recovery. It cannot be said that Japan as a whole is uniformly declining or increasing; a fine-grained, place-by-place view is needed.

Decline has more than one cause

The reasons for the decline of these beds have shifted with the era and the location. During the period of rapid economic growth, coastal land reclamation and shoreline engineering works physically destroyed the beds themselves. Water pollution from factory and household wastewater, frequent red tides, and reduced water clarity also weakened the beds by depriving them of the light needed for photosynthesis. The relationship between red tides and eutrophication is explained in detail in our article on red tides and eutrophication.

And in recent years, the most serious cause standing in the way is "isoyake," which we will examine in detail in the next section. Rising sea temperatures and an increase in creatures that eat seaweed cause newly sprouted seaweed to vanish before it can grow. Unlike the visible destruction of land reclamation, this proceeds quietly underwater and is easy to overlook, but its damage is spreading along coastlines nationwide.

Isoyake: the phenomenon that erases the sea forest

Green disappears entirely from a rocky shore once thick with seaweed, leaving bare rock exposed; this phenomenon is called "isoyake." The Fisheries Agency defines isoyake as a state in which seaweed in coastal beds declines and disappears due to various factors and does not easily recover. The name comes from the image of a withered sea forest, leaving only barren, rocky ground, as if scorched by fire. Isoyake is now becoming a serious problem along coastlines throughout Japan.

The chief culprit: sea urchins and their overwhelming "grazing power"

One major cause of isoyake is grazing damage from creatures that eat seaweed, especially sea urchins. It is natural for herbivorous animals such as sea urchins and rabbitfish to exist to some degree, but when their numbers grow too large, or their activity becomes too intense, they devour newly sprouted seaweed entirely. If seaweed is eaten faster than it can grow, the forest cannot regenerate. The Fisheries Agency also cites the mass occurrence of sea urchins and their excessive "grazing pressure" as a major factor in the decline of these beds.

What makes this especially troublesome is that sea urchins remaining in barren waters, lacking the seaweed that would be their food, become emaciated and contain almost no edible flesh. Having no commercial value, they go unharvested and are left to survive, continuing to eat any seaweed sprouts that appear, a vicious cycle in which "emaciated urchins devour the sea forest, and because there is no forest, the urchins stay emaciated." How to break this negative cycle is at the heart of the isoyake countermeasures we will examine in a later section.

Rising sea temperatures add fuel to the fire

Behind the increase in sea urchins and the intensification of their grazing lies the rise in sea temperature. As water temperatures rise, sea urchins remain active even in winter, continuing to eat seaweed. At the same time, seaweeds that prefer cold water, such as kelp and wakame, struggle to grow because they cannot tolerate high temperatures. Furthermore, herbivorous fish from southern waters, such as rabbitfish, expand their range northward as water temperatures rise, joining as new "eaters." Rising sea temperatures push isoyake forward in two ways at once: by directly hindering seaweed growth, and by increasing the creatures that eat it. The broader effects of rising sea temperature on fisheries and ecosystems are covered comprehensively in our article on rising sea temperatures and fisheries.

Sea surface temperatures around Japan are rising, per century, at a rate far exceeding the global average, and extreme high-temperature events known as "marine heatwaves" are also becoming more frequent. The mechanism by which marine heatwaves can wipe out seaweed forests in one stroke, triggering an irreversible "regime shift," is explained in detail in our article on the ecological impact of marine heatwaves. Isoyake is also, in this sense, a phenomenon in which the effects of climate change become visible in the familiar coastal seas close to us.

The other face of the problem: a lack of nutrients

The causes of isoyake are not limited to grazing damage and high temperatures. Ironically, in some cases, the sea becoming "too clean" is itself a contributing factor. In inner bays that once suffered from excess nutrients, tightened wastewater regulations have cleaned up the water, but this has now led to a shortage of the very nutrient salts (nitrogen and phosphorus) that seaweed needs to grow, causing growth to falter. Whether too polluted or too clean, seaweed/seagrass beds cannot thrive; this fact teaches us that restoring these beds requires the idea of "satoumi," maintaining just the right nutrient balance.

Isoyake is a phenomenon in which seaweed in coastal beds of our country declines and disappears due to various factors.

— Fisheries Agency, "Conservation and Creation of Seaweed/Seagrass Beds, and Isoyake Countermeasures"

Blue carbon: another value held by seaweed/seagrass beds

That these beds are the "cradle of the sea" has long been known, but in recent years their value has drawn attention from an entirely different angle. This is blue carbon: the function by which these beds absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and store it in the seabed. In the context of climate action, seaweed/seagrass beds are shifting significantly in position, from "nature that must be protected" to "a carbon sink that must be expanded."

What is blue carbon?

The way land forests absorb CO2 through photosynthesis and store carbon in their wood and soil is called "green carbon." By contrast, the carbon absorbed and stored by coastal ecosystems such as eelgrass beds, seaweed forests, tidal flats, and mangroves is called "blue carbon." It is a relatively new concept, proposed in a 2009 report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and it now occupies an important place in global climate action. The overall picture of blue carbon is explained in detail in our article on blue carbon ecosystems.

What makes these beds remarkable is that they can lock away absorbed carbon for a "long" time. Carbon stored by land forests tends to return to the atmosphere relatively quickly if trees die or burn in fires. In seagrass beds, however, part of the carbon taken up by the blades and roots becomes buried in seabed mud, and in the oxygen-poor environment there, it is sequestered without decomposing over long timescales of hundreds to thousands of years. The seafloor functions like a giant vault sealing away carbon.

How much CO2 do they absorb?

The carbon-absorbing power of these beds is gradually being revealed through actual observation. Research conducted in Ise Bay estimates that the carbon fixed by eelgrass beds amounts to 225 g-C/m² per year in artificially created eelgrass beds, and 180 g-C/m² per year in natural eelgrass beds. Observations by the Port and Airport Research Institute have also confirmed that eelgrass beds function as a "net sink" for CO2 throughout the year. Even though each small area may seem modest, the coastline as a whole absorbs and stores a considerable amount of carbon.

What matters is that not only "protecting" these beds, but "restoring and expanding" them, directly becomes a form of climate action. If we can reclaim beds that have been lost, the cradle of the sea returns to life while the carbon sink expands at the same time. Good for creatures, and good for the climate; restoring these beds is a project that yields many gifts at once, far more than a simple "two birds with one stone." Readers interested in tidal flats, another coastal carbon sink, may also want to read our article on tidal flat conservation.

Turning carbon into money: J Blue Credits

A mechanism is also emerging that turns the carbon absorption of these beds into funding for restoration activities. The Japan Blue Economy Association (JBE), established in July 2020 with the approval of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, launched the "J Blue Credit" system that same fiscal year. Under this system, a third party certifies the amount of CO2 absorbed through the conservation and restoration of seaweed/seagrass beds, and this can then be sold as "credits" to companies aiming for decarbonization.

In FY2022, for example, 3,733.1 tons (in CO2 equivalent) of absorption were certified across 21 projects, with part of it actually traded. Certified cases are increasing year by year, including a kelp fishing ground in Erimo, Hokkaido, and artificial tidal flats and eelgrass bed restorations in various locations. Proceeds from selling credits are put toward the next round of restoration activities and toward compensation for fishers. Building a cycle in which "restoring the sea is fairly valued and comes back as money" is the key to sustaining these activities over the long term. Readers interested in decarbonization efforts across various fields may also want to read our article on decarbonizing shipping, to see how climate action is spreading from the sea's side as well.

"Creating" eelgrass beds: the technology of restoration

Lost seaweed/seagrass beds often do not return simply by waiting. That is why, in many places, people are working by hand to bring these beds back to life through "creation" (restoration). Eelgrass beds in particular have well-established techniques for restoration using seeds and seedlings, and these methods are compiled in handbooks and guidelines nationwide. Here, let's look at the representative methods used to create eelgrass beds.

Sowing seeds: the method of seeding

Eelgrass is a seagrass that flowers and reproduces by seed. A restoration method that makes use of this trait is "seeding": in other words, sowing seeds. In early summer, eelgrass bearing seeds (flowering shoots) is collected and left to mature for a time in tanks or similar containers, from which seeds are extracted. Then, from autumn through winter, the seeds are sown onto the seabed. The simplest approach is "direct sowing," scattering seeds straight onto the seabed, but they are often carried off by the tide or buried too deeply in sand, and many fail to sprout successfully.

To address this, methods were devised to enclose the seeds in cloth, hemp sacks, or clay balls before sinking them. In Mikawa Bay, a technique of laying mats (sometimes called "Zostera mats") holding embedded seeds onto the seabed has been used with good results. By protecting the seeds while securing them at an appropriate depth, the success rate of sprouting is improved; such region-specific ingenuity has accumulated through years of trial and error.

Planting seedlings: the method of transplanting

Another method is "transplanting," replanting established eelgrass shoots in a different location. Shoots are dug up from a healthy eelgrass bed and carefully planted, taking care not to damage the roots, into the seabed of the area targeted for restoration. This requires more effort than seeding, but because already-grown shoots are used, establishment is faster and more reliable. It often becomes painstaking work in which divers plant one shoot at a time by hand, and this also makes it a central pillar of restoration activities that citizens can readily join.

Seeding and transplanting each have their strengths and weaknesses. Seeding can cover a wide area at once and is low-cost, but its success rate is unstable. Transplanting is reliable but labor-intensive, and care must be taken not to damage the original bed from which shoots are taken. In practice, the two are often combined, or used selectively depending on the seabed substrate and wave strength of the area, gradually expanding the green cover. Creating an eelgrass bed is not something completed in a single year; it is a long-term undertaking, nurtured over several years while watching how the sea responds.

Preparing the seabed itself: substrate creation

To begin with, if there is no sandy ground for eelgrass to root in, neither sowing seeds nor planting seedlings will take hold. This is why, in some cases, restoration begins with building the very foundation of the bed. Dredged sand produced when clearing shipping channels is used to build shallow sandy areas, and for restoring macroalgal beds, concrete blocks or stones that seaweed can root onto are sunk to create "algal reefs." The Fisheries Agency's fisheries infrastructure development projects also support this kind of substrate creation. In effect, the very foundation of the sea where creatures can live is prepared by human hands.

However, sustaining a created bed over the long term is not easy. Even after successfully sprouting, seaweed can be swept away by waves, eaten by sea urchins, or lose its light as the water turns turbid, vanishing all too easily. This is precisely why "adaptive management," continued monitoring and care even after creation, is essential. Building a sea forest is not finished once planted; it bears fruit only through ongoing nurturing.

Fighting isoyake: sea urchin countermeasures and restoration ingenuity

While technology exists for creating eelgrass beds from seeds and seedlings, a different approach is needed for the "isoyake" attacking rocky macroalgal beds. The enemy here is sea urchins, which multiply beyond capacity and devour all the seaweed. But in recent years, a shift in thinking has emerged that turns this nuisance into a "resource," aiming to solve both isoyake and declining fisheries at once.

First, reduce the sea urchins: removal as the basics

The basis of isoyake countermeasures is reducing the density of the sea urchins that devour seaweed. Fishers and activity groups dive in and manually remove or crack open the overabundant sea urchins. The Fisheries Agency also supports such bed-conservation activities, including sea urchin removal and the culling of grazing organisms, through programs like its "Multifunctional Fisheries Support Program." As the grazing pressure from sea urchins falls, room opens up for newly sprouted seaweed to grow without being eaten, and the sea forest can sometimes begin to recover naturally.

However, simply cracking open emaciated urchins and discarding them takes a great deal of labor without generating income for fishers, making it hard to sustain the activity long-term. How to give value to urchins that would otherwise just be thrown away: this is where the next piece of ingenuity comes in.

Turning a nuisance into a local specialty: fattening sea urchins

Sea urchins from a barren sea have thin, unsellable flesh. So why not move them to land-based tanks, feed them, and fatten them up over a short period, turning them into delicious, meaty sea urchins? This idea gave rise to "uni fattening" (chikuyo). Removing them from the sea suppresses isoyake, and raising and selling them brings income to fishers; it is a two-birds-one-stone system that turns a nuisance into a local specialty.

One unique example is "Cabbage Uni," developed by the Kanagawa Prefectural Fisheries Technology Center. Emaciated sea urchins are fed, over a short period, cabbage from the Miura area that would otherwise be discarded because it could not be shipped; each urchin eats roughly one head of cabbage, and its "meat fill rate" (the proportion of edible flesh) recovers to about 10%, producing sweet-tasting sea urchin. Raising urchins that ravage the sea on vegetables that would otherwise be wasted, and turning them into a regional specialty, is a vivid idea that solves the twin problems of food loss and isoyake at once. Readers interested in the issue of food loss may also want to read our article on food loss in seafood.

Tackling isoyake as a business

The company expanding this "urchin-utilization" approach to isoyake countermeasures as a business is Uminonics. The company has developed technology to quickly and deliciously raise emaciated sea urchins that ravage seaweed in barren waters, and operates fattening facilities in Yamaguchi and Oita prefectures. Bringing new industry and local specialties to regions struggling with isoyake, while simultaneously achieving marine environmental conservation and fisheries revitalization, it has drawn attention as a business model, and was officially recognized in 2022 by the United Nations (the "UN Decade of Ocean Science").

What these efforts show is that the era of thinking about environmental conservation only as "cost" or "sacrifice" is coming to an end. An act of protecting the sea can, by itself, generate employment, income, and local specialties; the use of sea urchins in isoyake countermeasures offers a concrete demonstration of a possibility where the environment and the economy are not opposed but can join hands. Along with the J Blue Credit system seen in the previous section, building mechanisms in which "restoring the sea pays off" is exactly the driving force needed to spread restoration nationwide.

Introducing mother plants and harnessing natural predators

Beyond sea urchin countermeasures, there is a wide variety of ingenuity for reclaiming seaweed forests. Methods being studied include introducing "mother plants" (bosou), healthy seaweed that supplies spores, into isoyake waters to encourage sprouting, and, as shown in Fisheries Agency guidelines, using the power of natural predators such as fish that eat sea urchins to suppress grazing pressure. In waters lacking nutrients, attempts are also being made to help seaweed growth through fertilization. There is no single silver bullet; identifying the cause specific to that sea and combining several approaches is the realistic path to overcoming isoyake.

These countermeasures require persistent, ongoing effort. Even after sea urchins are removed once, if new urchins move in from the surroundings, the bed will be devoured again. This is precisely why it matters for local fishers to take the lead, combining annual removal, fattening, mother-plant introduction, and monitoring, and keeping the cycle turning. Isoyake countermeasures are not a "one-time construction project"; only when designed as an ongoing "practice" of engaging with the sea can they reclaim a lost sea forest.

Citizens reclaiming the sea: participatory restoration activities

Restoring these beds is not the work of experts and government alone. In fact, it has been the hands of local fishers and citizens who love the sea that have supported eelgrass bed restoration across Japan. From the late 1990s through the 2000s, citizen-led efforts to restore eelgrass beds sprang up in localities across the country, and today incorporated organizations are actively engaged in this work in many places. The movement to reclaim the cradle of the sea is now spreading into "everyone's activity."

Green returns to Tokyo Bay: the challenge of Kanazawa-Hakkei

One symbol of this is the citizen-led eelgrass bed restoration that began around 2000 in Kanazawa Bay, Yokohama. Through efforts such as the "Kanazawa-Hakkei / Tokyo Bay Eelgrass Bed Restoration Council," citizens and children have continued to collect eelgrass seeds, grow seedlings, and plant them in the sea. In a corner of Tokyo Bay once lost to land reclamation and pollution, a green cradle is returning once again. In recent years, companies such as Tokyo Gas and Kurita Water Industries have also joined in, with employees and their families participating in observation and restoration of eelgrass, and the circle of activity is spreading to companies and the community as a whole.

The value of these activities does not lie only in an increase in the area of these beds. Witnessing, with their own eyes, a sea forest growing from seeds they sowed themselves, and fish returning to it: this experience itself nurtures, in the next generation, a heart that cherishes the sea. Restoration activities for these beds are also the finest classroom for marine environmental education.

"Satoumi" building spreading nationwide

In Mikawa Bay, Aichi Prefecture, centered on the youth division of the Gamagori Fisheries Cooperative, fishers themselves have continued collecting eelgrass seeds and sowing them through direct sowing and mats. A stable eelgrass bed is developing on a tidal flat built from sand cleared from shipping channels. In Ako Coast and Aioi Bay in Hyogo Prefecture, local activity groups work to increase eelgrass alongside protecting halophytic plants, advancing the building of a "satoumi," a coastal sea where people and nature thrive together. In Mie Prefecture, the prefectural fisheries research institute has compiled a restoration handbook, backing local activities.

"Satoumi" refers to a coastal sea where appropriate human intervention maintains rich biodiversity and productivity. A sea that is neither too polluted nor too clean, with a balance of nutrients and life: this is not something that arises by simply leaving it alone; it is preserved only through continued human involvement. Restoring these beds lies at the heart of this satoumi-building, showing a new form of relationship between the sea and people. On the theme of mechanisms to protect the sea, readers may also want to see our article on marine protected areas.

What we can do

You might think, "I can't get involved unless I live near the sea." But ways to contribute to restoring these beds are not limited to shoreline work. Joining an eelgrass restoration event with your family, supporting an activity group through donations, choosing the products of a company that purchases J Blue Credits: all of these are legitimate forms of participation. And in daily life, making choices that avoid polluting the sea, such as not overusing detergents or oil and not letting trash reach the ocean, also, in a roundabout way, helps protect these beds.

Plastic waste flowing into the sea, and abandoned fishing nets ("ghost gear"), also harm these beds and marine life. Everyday choices that reduce marine litter are covered in our article on ghost gear (abandoned fishing gear). Actions that protect the cradle of the sea lie scattered close at hand, right near our dinner tables and daily lives.

Conclusion: carrying the cradle of the sea into the future

Seaweed/seagrass beds spreading across the shallow sea are the "cradle of the sea" that raises baby fish, purifying the water, protecting the coastline, and also serving as a bearer of blue carbon that locks CO2 into the seabed. This sea forest, which offers so many gifts free of charge, has shrunk dramatically along Japan's coastline from about 208,000 ha to 125,000 ha, and continues to be lost to isoyake even now. The decline of the cradle of the sea is quietly and directly linked to the erosion of fisheries resources and the acceleration of climate change.

But this story does not end in despair. Techniques for creating these beds, sowing eelgrass seeds and planting seedlings, are being refined; in isoyake seas, ideas have emerged to turn sea urchins into local specialties; and the CO2 absorbed by these beds has begun to hold economic value as J Blue Credits. And above all, fishers, citizens, businesses, and government are joining hands, reclaiming lost green one shoot at a time, in activities spreading nationwide. Restoring the sea is no longer a pipe dream; it is a reality actually progressing in localities across the country.

What the restoration of these beds teaches us is the hopeful message that protecting the environment and enriching our lives and economy are not in conflict. Reclaiming the sea forest brings fish back, enriches fisheries, absorbs CO2, and creates a place for children to learn about the sea. What each of us can do may seem small. But participating in restoration events, donating to these activities, and making daily choices that avoid polluting the sea: these accumulated actions become a real force carrying the cradle of the sea forward to the next generation. For the overall picture of blue carbon, see our article on blue carbon; for the conservation of coastal ecosystems, see our article on tidal flat conservation; and for the effects of rising sea temperature, see our article on rising sea temperatures and fisheries, to deepen further your connection with the sea and with us.