Pradip Patade is a water sports instructor interested in Mumbai's shoreline. Over the last 20 years that he has spent time observing marine life in the megalopolis, he realised that it was rarely documented or discussed. Patade, along with Abhishek Jamalabad and Siddharth Chakravarty, founded Marine Life of Mumbai in February 2017 to conduct outreach activities that would acquaint Mumbaikars with creatures that live on the edge of the city. It is a citizen-driven initiative, aimed at exploring and understanding the coastal biodiversity of the Mumbai metropolitan region and is now registered as the non-profit, Coastal Conservation Foundation.

The team has created an open-source database of all marine life spotted over the past three years, on inaturalist.org. "We have documented 500 life forms so far, out of which 350 have been identified down to the species level," says Shaunak Modi, 35, a wildlife photographer who joined the initiative in the capacity of volunteer and is co-founder of the non-profit.