Mare Liberum- Freedom of the Seas

Over the last 12 years or so many Filipino workers have migrated from their homeland to the fishing communities of Scotland to work on the trawlers. These hard working seafarers according to many skippers I have spoken to, are now the backbone of the industry, with many vessels reporting they would be unable to set sail without them. This is a very different image of the fishing industry in North East Scotland today that I grew up with. This body of work marks a cultural and socially historic transition from the industry being solely formed by local and Scottish fishermen to approximately one quarter of our current crew being from across the world that is reflective not just of Scottish fishing ports but across the UK. The concept of "freedom of the seas" has endured since the seventeenth century, when the Dutch merchant and politician, Hugo Grotius, defended the Dutch Republic's trading in the Indian Ocean, with the argument of "mare liberum" based on the debate that the sea was free to all, and that nobody had the right to deny others access to it.