The sea continues to surprise Shaunak Modi, even four years after he first began documenting Mumbai’s abundant yet overlooked marine life. “There are these animals called 'sea slugs’. We never expected them to be here but we found about 45 to 50 species of them — from Juhu to Marine Drive,” says the nature photographer. He is an early member of ‘Marine Life of Mumbai’, a group that has been conducting walks on the city’s rocky and sandy shores, allowing people aged between six and 60 to take in its underwater treasures. Over the course of these trips, the motley team of nature enthusiasts has managed to document over 450 species of marine life that live in the sea shore.

Started by Pradip Patade, a water sports instructor, Abhishek Jamalabad, a marine biologist and Siddharth Chakravarty, an academic fisheries researcher, Marine Life of Mumbai had its beginnings on Facebook. Modi joined in the first six months. The volunteers soon extended their outreach to other social media platforms and began conducting their now-famous walks and events in February 2017.