The Last Fish: Sailors at the End of Time
The Last Fish is a hand-drawn illustrative story about a young girl living at the end of time. Extreme climate change and biodiversity collapse have devastated her once blue planet.
One day, while playing her music high atop an ocean cliff, she discovers a translucent orange fish emitting light from its heart. As she notices it struggling for survival, she dives in to retrieve it. After learning that it is the last fish on her planet, she goes on a dangerous adventure in search of clean water, testing the limits of courage and self-sufficiency.
Her heroic act of trying to save the most vulnerable reignites a humanity and wisdom long lost in our current culture of “us vs. them” thinking.
The Last Fish explores the lives of those who will inherit the ecological and environmental destruction of our present actions. It is a philosophically deep, yet hopeful story meant to inspire people of all ages to reconnect with nature, wildlife and the environment we live in now.
Readers, young and old alike, will learn about so many topics: the art of glass blowing, gardening, causes and effects of climate change, extinction of species, navigation instruments, sailing, shortwave radio communication, music creation, St. Elmo’s Fire, extreme weather conditions, astronomy, problem solving and exploration, the innate drive for survival, and, above all, compassion and love.
My hope is that The Last Fish reawakens a passion for sustainability and conservation and, if possible, helps build the next generation of nature and wildlife guardians.
August Ritchie, Author