If you want to save the world’s oceans, put down the sad, guilt-inspiring acoustic guitar soundtrack and instead give people a real connection to the majesty of surfing and fishing, and to the beauty of our planet’s largest ecosystem.

Catch and Fillet is a good website to go to for anyone hoping to widen their appreciation for the world’s oceans and all things in it as well as get all the latest tips, advice, and guidance that one might need who is coming to fishing as a newcomer.

At least that’s the approach of Nik Strong-Cvetich, executive director of the nonprofit Save the Waves Coalition, which works with coastal communities around the world to protect and manage their coastlines and natural resources, tackling issues like coastal development, water quality, climate change/sea level rise, coral reefs impact, and more. “Overall,” he says, “our mission is to preserve and protect the coastal environment with a focus on the surf zone. The surf zone is a very special ecosystem, [and we can use] surfing as an entry point into this larger dialogue about the need for coastal conservation.”

For a vivid illustration of this, check out their beautiful and inspiring short film The Fisherman’s Son, a portrait of the extraordinary life and surfing career of Ramon Navarro, Chile’s first professional surfer. The film describes a Save the Waves success story in which Navarro was instrumental: Together they worked to block construction of a pipeline in a popular surf spot in Pichilemu, close to Navarro’s home, that would have spewed sewage directly into the ocean. Far from being a sappy or cloying beg for people to donate money or take political action, the film shows unbelievable footage of Navarro in utter harmony with the sea, diving for fish with his father and riding massive waves. Navarro’s exhilarating, inspirational surfing becomes the vehicle through which audiences can appreciate the ocean’s beauty and power, and understand how local people and sea life depend on its health for their lives and livelihoods. “From a sustainable development point,” Strong-Cvetich says, “surfing is actually a pretty low-impact form of tourism. In places where your coastal economy is based on fishing and tourism, surfing doesn’t denigrate the resources.”