‘I trust my eyes, not the forecast’: Alexandria is sinking. Why don’t local fishers believe it?

Ahmed Gaz, who has lived by the sea in El Max all his life, returns from an early morning fishing trip. Photograph: Alexander Durie/The Guardian

On a sunny January morning in El Max, west of Egypt’s second city, Alexandria, where a canal meets the Mediterranean Sea, Ahmed Gaz is untangling his fishing net on the beach after landing his catch at dawn.

Like almost everyone in the neighbourhood, Gaz was born and raised by the water, destined to fish for a living: “My whole life is in the sea. My life, my work and my livelihood.”