Under the quiet blanket of night, Sunny, a 6-year-old boy, casts his line into the dark waters, fishing not for leisure but for survival. Fishing is more than a skill to him—it’s a lifeline. With only a few small fish caught during the day, his family of five or six survives, barely scraping by. Tonight, like many others, Sunny’s eyes shift from the water to the sky, anxiously watching for signs of rain. To him, the first drop is not just water but the beginning of another night of grief and hunger for his family.
The weight on Sunny’s small shoulders reflects the deeper struggles of his community. Vulnerable to the unpredictable forces of climate change, families like his depend entirely on the fisheries to sustain their lives. The changing climate has cast a long shadow on Bangladesh’s freshwater culture fisheries, reducing catches and destabilizing the only source of income and food. For Sunny, each night is a battle between hope and fear—hope for a bountiful catch and fear of the rain that could wash away not just fish but their very future.
