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00:00Emmanuel Macron, who you saw there, spelling out eight objectives ahead of an oceans summit
00:09that's being hosted in the French Riviera resort of Nice come the month of June.
00:18The French president spelling out eight targets that include an end to overfishing, the better
00:24protection of marine habitat, in particular, the protection of coral reefs.
00:36Exotic fish, water at 25 degrees Celsius, and no pollution.
00:45The perfect home for corals to thrive far from the tropics.
00:50Since the 1980s, nearly 85 species have been cultivated in this lab.
00:59This small piece can now go in the water.
01:04It's the beginning of a mother colony, which in about a year's time will look like this.
01:13According to a recent UN report, the world's coral reefs could be lost to the climate crisis
01:20in the next 10 to 50 years.
01:23Faced with this deadly scenario, marine biologist Didier Zucola decided to launch a major conservation
01:31project, aiming to provide shelter to all species known to humankind.
01:39It's like Noah's Ark, but for corals.
01:43We're taking them out of their natural environment in the hope that things will get better one
01:48day.
01:50In the meantime, we're keeping them safe in aquariums like this one because we know how
01:54to cultivate corals.
01:59The first sampling mission, which took place in the Seychelles Islands in 2022, yielded
02:0521 species.
02:08Each fragment, measuring no more than 15 centimetres, was fitted with a computer chip to create
02:15an ID card for each individual, including the type of sediment, depth and precise location
02:21where it was collected.
02:23They've since found a new home in Monaco, but also in museums and zoos in France and
02:30the Netherlands.
02:31Several samples of the same specimen must be kept in at least three different locations
02:36to guarantee there is a backup.
02:40Can you imagine keeping a species in just one aquarium and that aquarium has a technical
02:45problem?
02:46If that species can no longer be found in the wild, that would mean we would see it
02:50disappear.
02:51We can't take that risk, so we're placing our corals in different aquariums.
02:58But it might not be enough to save them if they can no longer survive in the wild.
03:04Scientists are studying ways to make corals resistant to higher temperatures and oceans
03:09turned more acidic due to carbon emissions.
03:13This species found in the Red Sea is being exposed here to a pH of 8 in normal conditions,
03:20all the way to an extreme of 7.2.
03:25We've shown that there's a change in its genes, allowing the species to adapt.
03:30That's why this coral in particular can survive in more acidic conditions.
03:38Now we want to try and transfer that resistance to other vulnerable species in the hope of
03:42restoring coral reefs that have been degraded by ocean acidification.
03:50The next mission is set to take place in the Philippines in 2025.
03:55Over the next five years, scientists hope to collect a total of 1,600 species.
04:04And joining us is environmentalist Claire Nouvian, founder of the Bloom Association.
04:09Thank you for being with us here on France 24.
04:11Thanks.
04:13And Bloom Association, which is sponsoring a petition to protect marine habitat in places
04:18like those coral reefs we're talking about.
04:21You were telling me before we went on air, you were a little underwhelmed by the French
04:25president's remarks at this preparatory summit.
04:28Right.
04:29That's even an understatement.
04:30I think I'm completely daunted.
04:32So this morning there was an SOS Ocean Summit with lots of the international marine community
04:39gathered with delegations from countries and so on.
04:42And expectations were really high on the president because France is hosting the next UN Ocean
04:48Conference, right, in June.
04:50So this was a sort of prep meeting for the UN Ocean Conference.
04:56And we were expecting Macron to say very loud and clear things about true protection of
05:02marine so-called protected areas.
05:06And the exact opposite happened, right.
05:08So a manifesto had been prepared for the summit and the manifesto said very clearly that we
05:14should actually comply with international definitions, supported by scientists, of what
05:19protection is.
05:20And protection is very straightforward.
05:22You can't call an area protected if you trawl it, right, if you trawl the seafloor, if you
05:29trawl through the water column and if you take every single animal that lives there,
05:33right.
05:34So protection should mean a ban on destructive fishing.
05:38And Emmanuel Macron avoided.
05:39Why?
05:40Why did he avoid it?
05:41Because the fishing lobbies are all over him.
05:44But they're very small.
05:46So that's the point I really want to make.
05:48I mean, we're talking, you know how many vessels are actually implicated in trawling, whether
05:54midwater column trawling or bottom trawling?
05:57Eight hundred.
05:58And if you ring fence these designated areas, you still have plenty of room to fish.
06:03Oh, gosh, yeah.
06:04I mean, if we actually did 30 percent protection, that would still leave 70 percent of the ocean
06:09for those destroyers, right, these bottom trawlers, these pelagic trawlers.
06:14They could still fish the hell out of 70 percent, which is reasonable, isn't it?
06:19I mean, asking for 30 percent protection is not a whim.
06:23It's a scientific recommendation because the ocean is in extremely bad state.
06:29And we all know that we're going through a major mass extinction of actually wild species
06:35on Earth.
06:36Right.
06:37So we need to protect them.
06:38We need to protect ourselves.
06:39The ocean is our sort of lifeline to us, humanity.
06:45And everybody's been hammering the same message over and over, actually for decades.
06:50And it's kind of daunting to see that fishing lobbies, a minute little economic interest,
06:57which is actually, you have to bear that in mind, trawling as an activity is unprofitable.
07:03It is structurally unprofitable.
07:06So if we didn't fund trawling, if we didn't fund these activities with our subsidies and
07:11public money, they wouldn't even exist.
07:14So the whole thing is a bit of a, I think, embarrassing situation.
07:18It's not just the French who trawl, of course, and we've seen a lot of countries that do.
07:25But the mood these days is not for some kind of international policing at a supranational
07:32level of waters, is it?
07:34No.
07:35But I think everybody's got to take responsibility in their sovereign waters.
07:39And that's exactly why France, being the second largest maritime territory in the world, right
07:44after the US, has to take responsibility.
07:46And as the host of the next Ocean Conference, of course, there are very high expectations.
07:52And I think everybody in the room this morning at SOS Ocean meeting was embarrassed when
07:56Mr. Macron spoke, because it was really kind of like, okay, now you're actually telling
08:01us publicly that you only support a little, very small fraction of economic interests,
08:07which again, are not profitable without public subsidies, against the will of citizens, against
08:13the will of scientists, against the recommendations.
08:16And it became even more embarrassing when Mr. Macron, as he would do sometimes, became
08:23very arrogant and started to lecture.
08:25He said, we will basically look after those countries that don't implement protection.
08:30You're like, I'm sorry, you don't implement protection.
08:34True protection in French waters is actually less than 0.1%.
08:40We don't protect anything except for trawlers.
08:43So one last question for you.
08:46We have a biodiversity summit that did not go well.
08:50We had the last climate summit by the UN that didn't go very well either.
08:55The targets were lowered.
08:58What would be the measure of success for the June summit?
09:00Well, the June summit is about stopping destruction and protecting truly.
09:06And the only thing that we need to bear in mind is that one day or the other, we'll realize
09:10that we need the ocean more than it needs us.
09:13And so if we don't stop fooling around with the CO2 emissions on one hand and the ongoing
09:19destruction by industrial fishing on the other, we won't be safe.
09:25Us humans, the planet will go on, right?
09:27The planet has gone through extinction cycles, but we will not survive this.
09:32I mean, we have to understand that who's most at risk right now.
09:36We humans are seriously at risk.
09:39And we're playing with fire.
09:40The only thing about humanity is that it feels like it's like as if fire was going on in
09:45our streets and we're waiting for fire to arrive in our apartments to kind of wake up.
09:50But when fire is in your apartment and there is fire outside, it's too late to react, right?
09:54So this is really what we have to start seriously understanding.
09:58But I think it's become quite clear that we can't count on our politicians anymore.
10:03So we need to turn to retailers.
10:05They're the ones who actually can call the shots.
10:07They're the ones who say, you know what, we will stop purchasing fish from so-called protected areas.
10:12They're the ones who can actually make protected areas real.
10:15So we really are turning to retailers at international scale right now.
10:19And that is a call that is launched here.
10:22Claire Nouveau, I want to thank you so much for being with us.
10:25Stay with us.
10:26There's more to come.
10:26More news plus the day's business and sports.
10:28You're watching France 24.