Stella Fernandes watched the beach in front of her family’s home shrink year after year. Nobody could tell her how fast, or where it would stop.
A self-taught coder, she learned to analyse free satellite images and trained fishermen’s children to record shoreline points with a phone app.
Data that villages own
ShoreWatch has now mapped 140 kilometres of coastline. Village councils use its maps to plant mangroves and to argue for protection works.
The sea keeps its own records. We just learned how to read them.
“Local people always knew the sea was coming closer,” Stella says. “Now they have proof officials cannot ignore.”
