The Bounty Of The Sea

Living near the sea has a lot of benefits especially if you live near a waterfront or a beach. Of course, there is always the constant danger that there would be a typhoon or a storm and the sea would advance inland, but fortunately for most people this never happens.

If you can get over thinking that this situation will not happen to you or your family, living near the sea has a lot of advantages. The number one benefit of course is that you don’t need to travel a long distance just to be able to have a swim.

You also don’t need a swimming pool because you have the largest swimming area next to you. But this article is not about the recreational advantages of being near the sea. This article would talk about ways one can earn from the sea by living near it.

Of course, the first thing that would come into your mind would be becoming a fisherman. Afterall, many people living near the sea are fishermen. Usually, these fishermen pass on the job to their children and then to their grandchildren.

I must admit the fishing discovery shows of the National Geographic Channel like Wicked Tuna got me interested in fishing. So is the Discovery Channel show, Deadliest Catch.

It seems that fishing and becoming a fisherman is cool. If I were a fisherman, besides fishing, I would also document my fishing activities and sell them to TV networks or just upload them to YouTube for advertising revenues.

But these fishermen, especially coming from the West like North America and Europe are the lucky ones. Most fishermen already consider themselves lucky if their wooden make do boat is not leaking water or their old motor engine is not malfunctioning.

These are the kinds of people this article is also trying to bring light on. Many fishermen from developing countries are fishermen because it’s mostly the only job or business that they can get.

Many of these fishermen and their families usually live in poverty, and they and their children have relatively low education. Usually, these fishermen due to their poor fishing tools like the lack of a decent fishing boat only capture enough fish to cover their most basic daily needs.

If I were a fisherman and if the fishing is not in season or my daily fish catch is not enough to cover for my daily living costs, I would consider making and selling salt. I happen to find just a related video in YouTube:

YouTube Video: The Japanese Technique for Harvesting Sea Salt by Hand

If you happen to watch the video, it is from Japan and tells the story of a Japanese town whose economic prospects have fallen down since the decline of their industries which includes fishing.

The Japanese salt makers in the video are just such people. They switched to salt making when their fishing industry declined. But, there is good news to the story. The salt makers not only survived the economic downturn of their town but have also prospered.

According to the owner of the salt making business, salt is in such good demand that he was able to open another salt making branch. Who knew that a product as simple as salt could be so profitable.

According to the Japanese salt maker. Most of their salt is bought to be used for cooking. According to him, the salt they harvest from the sea from their part of the world has a distinct taste which blends well with some food.

And this seems to be one of the success stories of salt. From the pinkish colored Himalayan Salt to the number one premium salt in the world which is Falksalt which comes from Sweden. Some salt varieties have become premium brands.

If you live near the sea, why don’t you consider making salt from the seawater near you? Maybe the taste of your particular area’s salt would capture the tastebuds of premium salt aficionados and make you good money.

You might not be aware of this, but salt is an important product in the creation of many chemical and electronics product. And as we all know, both industries are growing. According to many industry analysis websites, it is estimated that the global salt industry is growing.

According to Statista, one of these websites, the global market for salt is estimated to be 28.5 billion US dollars as of 2020 and would grow to 32 billion US dollars by 2026. This is nearly 60 US million dollars of growth per year.

Another potential source of revenue for people living near the sea is tourism. Like it or not, but most people rarely get to swim in the sea. A lot of people also like to see places near the sea. In short, places near the sea are instant tourism attractions.

I am one of these people. I’m what you would call a poor swimmer and I also have a desire to visit places near the sea. In fact, due to my very far proximity to any areas near the sea, I just make do with watching YouTube videos about beaches and other places near the water.

And, in some of these videos, I see beach goers in close proximity with fishing boats and fishermen. This just proves that as long as a place is near the water, it could be developed into a tourism attraction.

Of course, tourism is a service oriented industry and if you live near the sea, you might just get a job as a tourism worker. It could be as simple as being a pool cleaner or wine server to the outright manager of a hotel.

The obvious advantage of being in a service industry is you get to meet a lot of people unlike in administration jobs for example where you are generally stuck with other employees in an office or factory. Your tourism job might just be your key to find a potential business partner.

“Why work for a company when you can be your own boss?” This must be what’s going through the minds of some people living near the sea when they decided to make their homes bed and breakfast accommodations.

If not for the ongoing pandemic, AirBnB for example would have become one of the largest tech companies in the world. This just shows you how profitable leasing or renting your home or rooms are.

I have seen in Australia, people literally converting their garage into rental properties complete with the toilet area in the backyard and are making a lot of money with it. This is because more than anything else, many people want to live near the beach.

They would endure the living hazards of a cramped rundown garage just so that they can claim to their friends that they live “minutes from the beach.” To top it all, my friend who was renting the place pays double my rent when I live in a proper apartment.

Would a small tent be considered a rental property? According to enterprising individuals they are. There are individuals who rent out tents and other camping gear to tourists who want to stay in areas near the water, but have no living facilities.

Let’s face it, navigating the sea is not like walking on land where you only need a sense of balance to be able from place to place. Water can be dangerous and it takes skill in order for you to navigate it.

Many people grow up not knowing how to swim properly, if they can swim at all. Another thing to consider is that swimming in a swimming pool is a lot different from swimming in the sea. Just consider how big and strong the waves are even near the beaches.

And this is another service you can sell. If you live near the sea, there is a high likelihood that you are a good swimmer even under strong wave and current conditions. Your skill is desired by many “land lovers” who would gladly pay you good money to learn your skill.

You can also be a scuba instructor or you can just be a swimming guide for tourists should your place near the sea contain a lot of scenic diving spots that tourists would be dying to see. But do consider that your clients are essentially trusting you not keep them from drowning.

What else can you teach? Ah yes, you can teach surfboarding or sailing if you have the proper teaching tools. Besides the tools, you must also have the skills to teach. Surfing and sailing for example takes time to learn and can’t be mastered easily.

This might not be a service or business one can sell if one is not a master of such skills or don’t even have the tools to teach. This kinds of service or business is ideal for people who have already learned the skills while they are still young that it’s almost second nature to them.


Are you a fisherman and catch fish recreationally or a professional fisherman complete with a large fishing vessel? You can teach this skill no matter if you’re just fishing near the sea or far away in the open sea itself.

This could be profitable for you especially if you teach the hunting of big fishes. Just imagine, there would be people who have seen professional fishermen hunting those almost giant tunas and want to have the same experience.


If you promote it right, you can replace golf as a networking event for business executives. Usually, fishermen have to wait a long time before any fish bites the hook, this downtime could be used by executives to discuss about business deals courtesy of your fishing service.

Speaking of business executives, there would be a lot of relatively rich people out there who own boats and are always having the problem of finding parking spaces for them. This could be your opportunity to offer boat caretaking services to these people.

It could be as simple as renting out your boat docks to boat owners, but could go as complex as the actual maintenance of these boats. Let’s face it, there are many boat owners who don’t live near the sea or any body of water.

What usually happens is that they put their boat in its trailer and park it in their backyard if they even have a backyard. In Australia for example, I have seen several big boats parked in front of the street where their owner live.

This is how much people can love their boats. Even though they have no place to park their boats in their homes, they still buy big boats just because they love having a big boat. From a practical sense, the thinking of these people don’t make sense right?

But this impracticality by some boat owners could be good money for you. In terms of real estate, your proximity to the sea or to any bodies of water is like real estate gold because not many boat owner gets to live near the sea or to any bodies of water.

Speaking of boats and if you happen to live near the sea, you can use your boat as a floating service and store. This is especially effective if your boat is small enough that it won’t run aground in the beach or near land surface.

Your floating service and store is especially good if the place where you live is frequented by big boats, yacht and even ships which cannot go near the land. For example, if a boat needs supplies but is too big to go ashore, this might be a business for you.

You can in effect be the “grocery owner on land who just happens to own a boat” or the “mechanic on land who just happens to own a boat.” As I have said, this kind of business would only work for clients who have such big boats that it cannot go ashore.

The sea offers a lot of financial opportunities especially for the people living near them. It is no coincidence that most people who live near the sea are for example fishermen, salt makers or tourism workers.

The reason for this is simple, the narrow piece of land between shore and sea is considered a prime piece of real estate as evidenced by the million dollar prices of real estate located in these areas around the world. You might even say that living near the sea is a financial advantage already.

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