Jackie Alder

When most people try to visualize the “Sea” they envisage large marine expanses, and their underwater ecosystems. Until recently, the Sea Around Us project (SAUP) was way offshore, too. Yet, the sea also includes the coast – where the land meets the sea and where one finds some of the world’s most productive marine areas such as reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds. Coastal areas are of great importance to fisheries, not to mention tourism, aquaculture, transportation and gas and oil.