The line where the city of Charleston ends and the Atlantic Ocean begins is a blurry one, especially come summer when the area’s salt marshes, tidal creeks, rivers, estuaries, and beaches become our watery playground. (Or any day that it rains at high tide.) In honor of World Oceans Day (June 8)—which was established in 1992 by Canada’s International Centre of Conservation during the United Nation’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro—we sat down with Albert George, the director of conservation at the South Carolina Aquarium, to talk about the unique issues facing the Holy City’s fragile waterways and the surrounding coastal landscape. “I’m fighting for home,” says the Lowcountry native, who hopes future generations will know the joy of a morning marsh walk and of sinking their toes in pluff mud.