Yield explores the tension between abundance and finitude. The mackerel is both individual and resource: a living animal rendered with intimacy, yet one of countless fish understood collectively as stock, catch and commodity. The work considers the way we perceive the natural world through ideas of availability and use. Oceans can appear limitless, their resources continually replenished, while the language of harvest and yield quietly reduces complex living systems to what they can provide us. My fascination with painting fish began after a trip to Niue, where the relationship between people and the ocean felt particularly immediate. Niue has protected 40 percent of its Exclusive Economic Zone — 127,000 square kilometres — within the Niue Moana Mahu Marine Protected Area, where extraction is prohibited. Learning about this approach stayed with me: the idea that abundance is not simply something available for us to take, but something maintained through restraint. It changed the way I looked at fish — not merely as individual creatures or commodities, but as part of a finite, interconnected resource. The mackerel itself has since become an unexpectedly poignant subject. Once considered an abundant and sustainable choice, North-East Atlantic mackerel stocks have declined significantly after years of catches exceeding scientific advice. In 2026, Waitrose became the first major UK supermarket to stop sourcing mackerel on sustainability grounds, while scientists recommended substantial reductions in catches to allow stocks to recover. A fish once understood as plentiful has become an example of how quickly abundance can become scarcity. Yield.