Does the sea surround us? Or do we surround the sea? Sometimes we fortify our land-based habitation with concrete. This militaristic manoeuvre of distrust separates us, isolates our land-based metropli from the impeding ocean. Not distrust maybe- but an act made with awareness, a futile and petty piece of human engineering in the  face of melting ice sheets:
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/climate/climate.jsp?id=ns99994864

In Japan it is difficult to physically touch the sea. Fences, walls, concrete, tarmak keep us safely on land. You're on more intimate terms in the basement of the Hanshin Department Store.  Octopus eyes, crabs, cockles, whale...every bit of living flesh from the sea up for sale. Its fresh, and sometimes alive. And a fleeting confirmation that I live on an island.

Note the basement: the boundary between over/under ground is far more easily/frequently transversed than that between land and sea. Maybe we'll escape here more often- it's the war...shelters not from bombs, but from land prices, and from this hot, burning (but drowning?) planet.