The conference-debate of François Sarano, doctor in oceanography, founder of Longitude 181, expedition leader and former scientific advisor to Commander Cousteau, almost came to an end this Wednesday, November 27, 2013 afternoon in Kélonia. This conference-debate was planned around his latest film “Mediterranean, kingdom of sharks”. In the projection room, around thirty representatives of users of the sea, in particular surfers, had, in fact, made the trip, more to challenge the professional diver, on his position with respect to the sharks, than to view the movie.
The screening of “Mediterranean, kingdom of sharks” was initially scheduled to last 52 minutes. But the public finally had to be content with a few shots and sequences of swimming with great white sharks made in South America and South Africa. At the request of some of the sea users present, François Sarano started the debate earlier than expected.
The questions arose: “who financed your plane ticket?”, “Why did you come to Reunion?”… So many questions, without much relation to the subject of the conference, to which the expedition leader and Commander Cousteau's former scientific adviser tried to answer anyway.
Very quickly tired of this oratorical contest, most of the spectators, disappointed not to have seen the film, turned against the thirty or so users of the sea. Annoyed, some of these spectators left the screening room, others took to the sea user group. It took the intervention, on behalf of the surfers, of Christophe Mulquin, for the tension to fall: “we will leave you to your film, provided that you meet us afterwards. We will wait an hour, or even two, if necessary, come and discuss with us ”. “The current obviously does not pass with the divers”, for his part, launched another surfer.
A meeting request to which François Sarano responded positively. “I'm not in the habit of shying away,” he said.
The representatives of the users of the sea then left the room. They waited outside to debate with François Sarano. The exchange, sometimes lively, resumed at the end of the screening and questions in the room. Unsurprisingly, each of the two camps stuck to their positions before an end was finally put to the discussion. Note the discreet presence of the gendarmes who had no reason to intervene.
source: www.ipreunion.com
François 6 months ago published a letter.
It seems that not everyone has read it ...
I am therefore happy to add it to this news:
YES TO SURFERS AND YES TO SHARKS!
Reserves are spaces, extremely rare in this world, where priority is given to wildlife over human activities.
Faced with the tremendous acceleration of the destruction of wildlife caused by the development of our activities that we can no longer control, it was deemed essential to put safeguards, to create preserved places before it is too late, so that tomorrow we are not facing the irreversible. These places are the reserves, they are too few, far from what it would take to ensure the sustainability of the living.
The objective of marine reserves is to offer wild life spaces where it can be restored, spaces where we do not intervene precisely as we do everywhere else. And everywhere else the impact of our poorly controlled development, the impact of our activities, our will to manage, provoke a dramatic impoverishment of life.
Let us never forget that the marine reserve is not an area where life is exceptionally rich, it is around that it is dramatically poor because of our activities and our management! The diversity of species, the number of individuals, the abundance of life found in a reserve IS THE STANDARD!
These reserves are treasures of which we are just beginning to judge the immense value. If barely created we question them because they limit our activities, we will not succeed.
Do you have the idea of eliminating lions from an African reserve on the pretext that some want to jog?
Opening a breach by authorizing hunting in the reserve would be a step backwards… we really don't need it: that's what we do all over the world. We put no limits on our expansion, our rapacity, our whims.
Fishing for sharks on the reserve? What limits? Which ? How ? Until when ? and after the sharks, what other nuisance should be checked?
We have made a reservation so that we do not ask these questions because the answer is simple: Here, in this space, it is man who is tolerated; it is man who must accept and respect the rules of nature, instead of imposing them as everywhere else.
Finally, I would remind you that the Marine Reserve is a common good, that surfers are not the only users, and that many other users strongly wish that sharks live in peace.
Finally and to conclude, I will say that
Our request has never been to prohibit or limit the bathing activity, diving, swimming, surfing ... We simply ask that, like all other practitioners of RECREATIONAL activities, surfers comply with natural constraints: storm, currents, waves, jellyfish, sharks.
There is no point in eliminating sharks, especially since we do not know if we are eliminating the one who caused the accident. On the other hand :
- SURVEILLANCE: The means of preventing accidents exist and must be reinforced: The installation of beacons makes it possible to signal the presence of sharks and therefore to warn surfers, who are the most concerned.
- INFORMATION; Clear dissemination of the information that these tags provide so that everyone is warned of the presence of sharks (their presence does not mean an accident)
- RESPECT OF WARNINGS and SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS; When the conditions are unfavorable and they have been clearly marked as such, surfers do not practice their activity (other users are obviously not bothered). Remember that the last accident should not have happened, because precisely the information had been given.
- ADULT RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS ACTIONS. And it is with full knowledge of the facts and as a responsible adult, able to decide whether or not to go to sea, that we will be able to find a balance with wild life.
This compromise between nature's activity practices and the constraints of the environment finds many examples in other places and other disciplines: off-piste skiing; sails on the high seas, speleology, diving…
THERE IS PLACE FOR SURFERS, THERE IS PLACE FOR SHARKS,… there is no choice, we take both! Simply from time to time, humbly, men must give up their activity to make room for others, especially in a marine reserve.
Freedom does not consist in satisfying all our desires by removing all that bothers us, all the constraints. Freedom develops, on the contrary, in learning and accepting these constraints.
Francois SARANO
0 comment
Hi,
In response to Steph, I allow myself to disagree. Always more stands, always more visitors, all the themes around diving are represented, many conferences ... a meeting place for professionals and enthusiasts. REMEMBER before 13 years, the show did not exist and we were entitled to a “diving area” at the Paris nautical show limited to a few sellers of equipment. What to say about this gap !!! So much progress since then. We will all be at the 14th show!