Chennai’s long eastern coastline and the even longer Coromandel Coast are not only the sandy beaches they are well known for, but also meandering estuaries, interconnected marshes and brackish water inlets that are home to rich and varied forms of human and more-than-human life. Neither the narratives of pollution and the varieties of groynes that attempt to redeem the region from environmental injustice; nor the imaginations of blue seas, glorious pasts and futures tell us much about these complex worlds. The seashore – the kadarkarai – thus is matter of concern.