A training session led by Divya Karnad with chefs from Bombay Canteen

Our oceans are in trouble. You may have heard this before. From the rising sea level and repeated cyclones to the plastic pollution and depleting sea life, the symptoms of ocean health suggest something deadly. As a scientist, my approach is to figure out not only what is ailing the ocean, but also why this has come to be. As a conservationist, my mission is to at least reduce these impacts and help us live in greater harmony with the sea. Hence I research marine fisheries – a big indicator of ocean health, and examine how to reduce our impact on marine animals that are threatened with extinction.

Encountering fishes on land is usually a dirty and uncomfortable experience. It could involve dodging persistent sellers at a smelly and grimy market, or combing through harbours filled with cartons of dead sea life. Studying fishes with feet firmly planted on terra firma is not for the faint of heart. And yet, this research has consumed the last decade of my life. What makes me continue this work are my roots as a coastal person, and because I have had the opportunity to dip my head under the water. Far from the dying, rotting organisms that I have encountered on land, underwater, I have found that fishes are curious, emotional, social, and intelligent creatures. They are also extremely diverse, from the vegetarian parrotfish that create our white sand beaches, to the sharks that keep the oceans clear of carcasses. The diversity not only helps build the resilience of many different ocean ecosystems, but also ensures that the nutritive content of every species is unique and contributes immensely to all that eat them.

My research suggests that most urban seafood eaters across India know almost nothing about the fish that they eat. The cognitive dissonance that humans are capable of when we encounter life that does not immediately resemble our own is unparalleled. This dissonance echoes in the way we think about

seafood when we are eating it on land, versus interacting with it in the water, and in the way that we think about the people who catch this seafood – fishing communities. As a young student, scientific literature taught me to believe that the number of fish in the sea is declining fast and that greedy fishing communities are the cause for this decline. Imagine my surprise, when I went to live and work with fishing communities in several coastal states, and found people who were as diverse-thinking, complex, intelligent, ecologically considerate, and more economically savvy than I was. The lives of these people were shaped by the hundreds of marine organisms that were trapped in their nets, as well as the thousands that weren’t but still dictated the environment in which these people and animals lived. I met people who at once were on the phone with buyers from Dubai and China, but who also told the time by looking at the position of the sun or stars. These were also people who were struggling to create a quality life for themselves and their families, but would still release high-value lobsters if they were carrying eggs, or set aside fishing-free zones if they knew that the fish were breeding there. The fishes in the sea were still dying, but fishing communities, it seemed, were already doing a myriad of things that could help restore ocean health.

If fishermen are recognising and reacting to this problem, but seafood eaters are ignorant, clearly the people who need to change their ways are the latter. My research into old coastal recipes shows that traditionally coastal people knew how to utilise all that the sea provided. But now we eat only about 10 or 15 species, and discard the other 85 – 90 that are caught (and are perfectly edible). This kind of wastage needs to change.

I have co-founded a programme that is leading this change in India. It is called InSeason Fish, where we work towards creating awareness about sustainable seafood eating – through social media and the website. We also engage directly with fishing communities, train chefs, and educate seafood eaters through our guided fish market and fishing harbour tours in Chennai and other coastal cities. Over the last four years, InSeason Fish has brought some of India’s top chefs onboard to start talking to their followers about the need for sustainable seafood eating practices. The tide is turning for India’s ocean health, and I only hope that we can move fast enough to save the oceans and ourselves.

Divya Karnad is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies. She is the founder of InSeason Fish, a sustainable seafood initiative. Her work focuses on marine conservation, fisheries management, the geography of seafood, climate, and aquaculture.