Sea Fruit
Cole Zimmerman
Endless ocean. Endless plunder. Endless wealth. Throughout history, the ocean has been a necessity to human survival. Evolving from coastal communities that have to fish with local materials, to creating modern fleets with GPS plotting, satellite imagery, and high strength sonar in order to maximize shareholder profits. The rise of technology has enabled humans to venture to the farthest points of the Earth, and with that distance comes a disconnect from the consumer. We often don’t think about the feats of engineering, massive infrastructure, and the thousands of people that are involved in getting fish from the ocean to the grocery store. This push for convenience has created one of the largest, and often forgotten industries. With increasing efforts to become sustainable, and multiple communities around the globe to use as examples, commercial fishing has slowly become one of the most regulated industries in the world. By using information from the Automatic Identification System (AIS), showing the paths these fishing boats take through the oceans of the arctic, I bring these boats from the most unseen places on Earth to the dinner plate. The distance and conditions facing these fishermen are some of the harshest on the planet, all for you to sit at the table and enjoy a meal thousands of miles in the making.