A growing coalition of small-scale, community-based fishers is calling for the recognition and protection of Alaska’s invaluable coastal fisheries. Small-scale fisheries support a way of life that has become increasingly rare in the industrialised world–a way of life that is inexorably tied to the natural world, where individuals face forces far greater than human power and thrive only through humility and a keen awareness of natural rhythms. The humility instilled by working from a small boat on a big ocean offers humanity a path back to a way of life in balance with natural systems–a lesson industrialised countries must learn before the systems fail.