Today, June the 8th is World Ocean's Day.

A long way from home, one of the world's biggest pelagic boats the Western Endeavour is picked up by AIS just off the Mauritanean coast of West Africa between the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands to the south. This paper, from 1993 indicates just how prolonged the practice and extent of licencing flagged vessels to fish in waters other than our own.

As it is World Ocean's day today - this short trailer ties in with the visit two weeks ago from Cape Verde fisherman to Newlyn and is one example of many promotions and publicity drives to inform an unthinking world that fish are being exploited as never before by countries that really should know better - like the EU.......

Trailer for the documentary Sand Grains

350 miles off the coast of West Africa, on the tiny island nation of Cape Verde, the beaches are vanishing and Jose Fortes is watching his friends and family sell the sand. Global fish resources are rapidly diminishing and, as a result, the European Union has been bullying and blackmailing Cape Verde into surrendering its precious resource and way of life. The islanders cannot hope to counter the political and economic might of the superpower and so women and children are forced to begin trading away their own land in order to survive. A David and Goliath story, told through the eyes of Jose, a native islander émigré, who has returned to Cape Verde to witness the destruction of the place he once called home. Sand Grains documents a local situation which is only the beginning of a global catastrophe.

Sandgrains is a crowdfunded documentary produced under a creative commons licence. The project draws on support, talent and expertise through interactive web technology and social networks. It uses crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing as production strategy and reaches out to a global audience that performs a vital role in driving the project itself.

produced and directed
Gabriel Manrique and Jordie Montevecchi

production company
matchboxmedia.org

film website
sandgrains.matchboxmedia.org