EXPEDITION GOMBESSA

The South African waters of Sodwana Bay (KwaZulu-Natal), north of Durban, on the Mozambique Channel, a “spot” renowned for its reefs, manta rays, turtles and sharks, has been home to since April 5 and until May 15, a scientific expedition organized by marine biologist Laurent Ballesta - with the support of the National Museum of Natural History, the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity - whose vocation is to observe in its element, on the site of the caves of Jesser Canyon, by 120 meters of bottom, the behavior of the most famous fish, considered as a living fossil, the coelacanth, or gombessa in Zulu ...
Famous, the coelacanth is better known as a fossil than as a living species ... In fact it retains all its mystery, all its potential for fascination, living witness of the passage from fish to the first terrestrial vertebrates, with its fins - proto-legs - say pedunculate and its primitive lung ...

To succeed in an unprecedented enterprise, made dangerous by the repeated practice of deep dives, Laurent Ballesta's partners, experienced divers like himself, will implement strictly scientific observation protocols developed and programmed by French researchers. , under the leadership of paleontologist Gaël Clément and their South African counterparts, biologists Kerry Sink and Angus Paterson. Laurent Ballesta became known for having photographed the first encounter between Man (diver) and the coelacanth, in 2010, at - 200 meters, a few years after the films shot from a submarine, in the Comoros, by researchers Hans Fricke, from the Max-Planck Institute in Seewiesen (Germany), and Raphaël Plante, from the Center d'océanologie de Marseille.

As for its subject, the coelacanth, star fish if there is one, a rare survivor of the mass extinction which succeeded the Devonian, it hit the headlines, in 1938, by revealing itself to homo sapiens sapiens who believed to be extinct for millions of years. Baptized Latimeria chalumnae by the ichthyologist James Leonard Brierley Smith, who recognized in him a member of the Crossopterygians, which as everyone knows, are fish with “fringed fins”, the coelacanth remained discreet until a Comorian fisherman A specimen goes up at the end of a long line - mazé fishing - in 1952, in Anjouan waters ...

Living fossil, described as a “Lazarus taxon”, the coelacanth was the victim of scientific curiosity, sought after by museums wishing to enrich their collections, the subject of real business in Europe and Asia. In fact we find coelacanths more or less well preserved in the four corners of the world ... On the first floor of the Natural History Museum of Saint-Denis we can also observe a molding of coelacanth from the National Museum of Natural History of Paris.

The Comoros became the homeland of the coelacanth, making this extraordinary animal, which was contemporary dinosaurs, one of the emblems of the archipelago, figured on stamps and even struck on commemorative coins.

From 1952 to the present day more than 200 individuals have been taken, voluntarily or not, raising concerns about the sustainability of the species which has been placed on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as “endangered. extreme". Anxious to preserve this ancient inhabitant of the deep sea, the Comorian fishermen and the authorities of the archipelago have decided to sanctuary the living areas and prohibit fishing. The Gombessa Preservation Association was incorporated in 1997, which led in 2011 to the creation of the Center for Information, Education, Promotion and Conservation of the Coelacanth and its marine environment of the Comoros. A happy initiative, because we know since 2008 and the in situ counting work of the Max Plank Institute, that the population of Comorian coelacanths is about 500 individuals ...

Why go see the coelacanth in Sodwana Bay? Quite simply because despite the average depth of 100 at 120 meters, the caves in which it stays are more accessible than those of the Comoros, located around 200 meters ... And if other populations have been identified in Tanzania, Madagascar and Indonesia (1997), the site of de Jesser Canyon has the advantage of being on the territory of South African researchers interested in the ethology of the species; as for French scientists, it is to the genealogy of the coelacanth, to its role in the evolution of a marine life mode to a terrestrial way of life that they attach.

For the general public, the chain Arte which accompanies the expedition, prepares a magazine of 90 minutes in partnership with the official sponsor of Project Gombessa, the Blancpain watch brand, with the assistance of the national museum of Natural History of Paris, CNRS and the Languedoc-Roussillon Region.

Special Jury Prize awarded to documentary
The coelacanth, dive to our origins
directed by Gil KEBAILI and Laurent BALLESTA,
co-production: ARTE France Les Films d'Ici.

-Palme d'Or category website for the Gombessa expedition blog http://www.coelacanthe-projet-gombessa.com/

- Special Jury Award for the feature film  "The Coelacanth, diving towards our origins" (ARTE, films from here, Andromeda - realization Gil Kebaili)

The diffusion on Arte of the movie "The Coelacanth, diving towards our origins" is planned for the spring 2014.

From the images shot by the Gombessa expedition (Laurent Ballesta - Andromède Océanologie) with heavy video resources, Suboceana® reconstructed the natural environment of the Coelacanth in 3D. With the Oculus Rift® virtual diving mask, the team offers you a dive that most of us will never be able to do, without risk and without decompression stop… It's at the Paris International Scuba Diving Show , from January 10 to 12, 2014, HALL 6 Stand C49, Porte de Versailles.