INTERVIEW PATRICE OFFICE - LONGITUDE 181

Patrice Bureau is a real passionate. He has been fighting for years for the preservation of the seabed and its inhabitants. President of the association Longitude 181 since 2012, he agreed to share with us his experience and his feelings on the field of marine exploration.

Can you explain to us what Longitude 181 is?

Longitude 181 is a law association 1901, founded in 2002 by François Sarano and Vincent Ohl, which works in the field of a more equitable sharing of the resources of the sea and the ocean, with an ecological dimension of responsible diving.

What is your role within the association?

I have been the president since 2012 and my responsibilities are diverse and varied. We are a dozen people on the board and the president's goal is to ensure the everyday, to rally the board's goals. It's mainly about coordinating the team, because today we have about 40 active members (which is the second circle around the board of directors), so we have to coordinate all these people according to the various events we participate. It goes from the Diving Lounge, to conferences and booths, to the invitations of some ambassador centers and some festivals that want us to be there whenever possible (on a stand that is offered to us). It is then necessary to animate and boost all this network, so that everything works correctly on the campaigns, the engagements and the conventions. The role of the President is also to be present and sign partnership agreements with a number of sponsors with whom we are working together.

What have you done before? What is your background ?

If we stay in the environmental fiber, as a child I was snorkeling and snorkeling before even knowing how to swim. My father and his friends were underwater hunters. I followed them, of course, without a crossbow, and I amused myself by observing that the fish were running away from them as they came naturally towards me, being 10 meters behind them without a rifle. Ironically, the hunters thought there was nothing to hunt. I liked it a lot because I already saw a lot of underwater species. It was also the time when we saw the movies of La Calypso or Tazieff on TV. Like many of my generation, I was already fascinated by these universes, and I wanted to become a volcanologist or diver of La Calypso. I have not become one, but I have always been attracted to biology or the environment. It is certain that as soon as I was able, in the 2000 years, I went scuba diving and I never stopped snorkeling or snorkeling. Needless to say, I set up my diving club with my friends in 2007, then my meeting with François Sarano with Longitude. Regarding my career, I first worked in medical analysis laboratories with training biologist, microbiologist and chemist in food. Having no further evolution in the medical laboratory environment, I turned to food microbiology. I set up a food microbiology analysis laboratory. Then over time, I dropped the analyst side to focus more orientation and training to assist food companies to meet the regulations. It's still what I'm doing right now, 25 years later.

Do you have other projects in parallel than Longitude 181?

Longitude 181 is 100% of volunteering, as for all members of the team (functioning that we intend to keep within Longitude). The funds are fully focused on the action, and on the structural. Besides that there is a real job and a real profession. I also have another volunteer cap, since I am President of the South Gresivaudan Diving Club (CPSG), an associative diving club affiliated to the French Federation of Studies and Underwater Sports (FFESSM).

What is your main motivation for joining all these projects?

One day I saw the film "Lord of the Sea" ("Sharkwater") released in 2006, by Rob Stewart. This film completely upset me and leaving the projection I thought that now I could not be passive, I must be active for the preservation of the oceans. That's why I got involved in this area.

How did you integrate Longitude 181 in 2012 and replace your predecessor Francois Sarano?

In fact, I joined the association a year ago; it was the result of a meeting. I had joined my dive club Longitude 181 because I had seen and asked François Sarano during a preview of the film "Oceans" by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud. But we could not meet at that time because he was very busy. It was thereafter, via my diving club, that we were able to meet at the Salon de la Plongée and to join the club as ambassador center (all this by following the association by far). Being a member of Sea Shepherd (Rhône Alpes) we had organized a conference at Saint Martin d'Hères University in Grenoble, having been previously welcomed by Mr Sarano by my previous solicitations (which unfortunately did not lead to anything concrete ), I had contacted him again to know if he wanted to co-animate the projection of the making-of of "Oceans" on this occasion he could free himself and responded favorably. It was a moment shared and it is at the end of this conference, that he announced me needing a director at the level of the association. The next morning I applied. I first integrated Longitude into 2011 by integrating the position of treasurer, then very quickly by switching to the presidency.

What is the International Responsible Diver Charter?

It is the backbone of Longitude. It was created by former Calypso divers, including Albert Falco, who was our godfather until his death in 2012. They made the observation by returning to their experience of professional divers and discoverers, that they made some mistakes and became fully aware of them. Nevertheless, they gave the whole world the desire to go underwater and explore the seabed: they gave birth to the diving of pleasure and leisure. Up to them diving was only a matter of professionals (the divers, the military etc ...) so they democratized the discipline. But if millions of people reproduce what they did when they were only a handful, it would be an unprecedented environmental slaughter and we would have to take full responsibility for it. From then on, they got together around a table and created the Charter. In the 2000-2002 years, nobody was talking about "sustainability" and "responsibility". Today is a vocabulary that is recurrent in people's mouths. They were the pioneers with this charter, which starts from the moment when one thinks about his diving trip, until the return of his diving, with a spirit of being respectful of the underwater environment. It's not only when someone is diving at sea, but it's also a philosophy of life. It is essential to respect the environment as a whole (whether at sea, on land or by boat).

What will be the evolution of the association?

To be more powerful and the voice of the ocean is the strongest possible, it is essential that the number of members increases. Longitude is moving the lines, where everyone claims it's impossible. We try to move the spirits with other associations in particular we intervene on the protection of sharks, a species absolutely essential for the ecosystem and let them know that they are not men eaters as one might think. There is also the campaign for the societal study of sperm whales in Mauritius. A new alliance is possible to help preserve the wild world. We must move to a new era with our "roommates", who have the right to live next to us on this planet, and change the look of the human. By this, there is a leitmotiv: the right to let live must prevail. Today we have the legal right to kill, but we do not have the right to let live. For example, underwater hunting competitions, where we kill for pleasure to obtain trophies, but we see that the legislation today is not able to intervene. Divers can not intervene with hunters killing (let's say) moray eels while they are there to explore the seabed at the risk of being in court. It is a steal not to allow a diver to simply admire nature, however, there are permissions to kill. Of course the projects are different in the field of protection, we are always in favor of protected marine lands and go to the crenel when they are attacked.

What are the issues facing the association today?

Everything that was done about ten years ago by the founders was great, but worked through word of mouth via their dive network. They achieved a notoriety, which today comes to introduce the false idea that we are a big association, no longer needing members, because we are considered as present on the whole globe with our ambassador centers; the Charter is taught in almost all diving federations (including the French, with an estimate of 90 000 divers). We are still trying to be in all the battles in the environment. We are however very present and we are well relayed by all the press diving. Unfortunately people do not realize that we do not have enough members to be presented or heard from the authorities, who legitimately must show a blank paw and ask for a minimum number of members. Today painfully we have only 400 members while at the level of the instances we start to consider an association only from 2000 members. We do not have enough voices, not enough power at this level, and people are often surprised when we have this speech. There is 150 000 licensed within the FFESSM, you immediately measure the difference between 400 and 150 000. People consider that we receive subsidies from the State or part of the French Diving Federation, when in fact we are completely independent. We do not live and wish to act thanks to the subsidies of the members, to the number of members and our sponsors. Our projects depend on and are based on that.

So you have trouble making a legal impact?

It should be 2000 members to be force of proposals at the legislative level. The lobbying that we can do is coalition with other associations that have more members, to get to this critical mass. Longitude is today cut off from this possibility. On the other hand, we have in our active members legal advisers who are in the field of the environment, to which I asked a work on this level, to see in the law on the biodiversity (which was voted by the preceding ones governments) what support and what legal means gave us this law to go on these themes there. It is a work in progress with the volunteer lawyers of the association.

How and what type of communication do you use to raise awareness through your projects or actions?

We try to use all the channels that are available to us, the dive press which graciously opens their pages when we need them. They showed us a lot of sympathy. All one has the same will and the same benevolent reception with respect to the association. This paperweight with internet versions offers us visibility. The other means of communication today are of course Social Networks with Facebook and Twitter, which have become unavoidable. We communicate our information mainly on our website. There is also direct communication with our newsletters to which people can subscribe if they wish to follow us a little closer. The national press and the radio press (France Inter) where we have regular invitations is also part of our communication. There is also the physical meeting through conferences where people meet directly at festivals or fairs, including the International Diving Salon in Paris, the Salon Galathea in Hyères, or the Aquatic Festival in Paris. Marseille. Through our stands, there is also this possibility to communicate.

What measures are taken, in terms of actions to be able to raise people's awareness, do you do advertising campaigns?

We do not have a lot of resources and we assume that we have enough channels without paying advertising. For the moment, we are not aiming for advertising campaigns. We collaborate between associations because we have the same vision, as for Shark Alliance where about twenty associations have joined forces for the cause. It is essential to create coalition between associations, because it is only together that we are stronger and that allows us to be audible and to have more impact.

Do you have anything else you would like to add?

We've done a lot of work on Longitude's DNA and what's important to us is to go this way, with this notion of living better together with the wild world and getting people to understand that we can interact with large wild animals in another way. The meeting and the knowledge are the key of everything.

Interviewed the 23 / 10 / 17

By Aurélie Kula

longitude181.org

cpsg38.fr