By Alexia Juárez, catch monitor, Golfo de Santa Clara, Mexico
For me, the ocean means hope. As a child, one of the things I enjoyed most was going with my grandfather to seafood processing plants where I would watch many women working. I also cherish the image of going out to sea with my father and coming home with the panga (skiff) full of fish that we would later clean and sell as a family. In other words, the ocean has given us everything: wealth, belonging and spiritual strength. Today, I am a mother of two small children, and I feel the need to give back to the ocean so that my children can continue to live from it in a dignified way. I also want to teach them to love and respect the sea and all the life that lives within it.