I’ve long been fascinated by the remote Pacific island, Tristan da Cunha.

It’s a British Overseas Territory but about as far from the UK as you can get, or anywhere in fact – a six day boat ride across 2,400km of the world’s largest ocean from South Africa. That’s a long way to go to the mall or supermarket. And I doubt if Dominos delivers there.

It’s a wonderful waste of time daydreaming about living in a community with 250 people on a volcanic island, surrounded by waves and an unbroken horizon of blue. With the Tristan albatross and great shearwater, penguins, petrels and prions, blue sharks, fur seals and whales.

So I loved this story for International Women’s Day 2025 posted by the RSPB – how the woman manager of the island’s creche became the officer of the Tristan’s Marine Protection Zone, a no-take fishing zone three times the size of the UK.

There’s many juxaposed scales like that. A small island connected to the UK. A small island managing a huge piece of ocean. A community of 250 unconnected by plane, but updates in technology means they are connected to a global community. A woman who was born and raised in this tiny community has now travelled to Canada and the UK, and met King Charles and attended Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.

The responsibility is vast. Not only do the Tristanians rely on a healthy ocean for food and income from rock lobsters but now they protect this part of the ocean’s health on behalf of the world.