Robert Calcagno is director of the Albert-I Foundation Oceanographic Institute^er-Prince-de-Monaco, an organization that works to defend sharks, too often perceived as terrible predators for humans. The scientist has just published the book Sharks, beyond the misunderstanding published by the Rocher-Institut Océanographique de Monaco. Interview.

Why take a stand in favor of sharks?

We strive to change the outlook of the general public, to clear up a misunderstanding about them. These big predators are not big bad guys lurking at the bottom of the ocean. They are responsible for around ten deaths per year. Mosquitoes cause 80 times more. These figures on sharks are reliable: today there are several databases around the world that record every attack on humans.

Humans, on the other hand, fish tens of millions of sharks a year. Their populations cannot adapt to such predation, they are collapsing. Many species are today on the verge of extinction or local disappearance.

This year, we are organizing a series of free conferences for the general public on their subject, at the Maison des Oceans, rue Saint-Jacques, in Paris. And we have just inaugurated an exhibition at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, which will last until 2015. Visitors no longer come to collect information that they can find elsewhere, they wish to live an experience, emotions and that is why we show them, for example, concretely the speed of a movement of a shark-mako. There is something to be stunned and understand that it is useless to flee in the presence of a shark: it is better to face it. We suggest ending the visit by dipping your hand into a basin that houses twelve specimens. It's a way to make another contact ...

Isn't there all the same a part of the population that you will have difficulty convincing?

On June 10, we organized a meeting in Monaco of various scientific, economic and sporting actors from Reunion. NGOs, surfers, representatives of tourism - sharks are also an attraction, for divers, in particular - managed to exchange views during a constructive debate. They even signed a common text that day! Everyone agreed to ask for more scientific studies, but without waiting too long for conclusions. We have to admit once and for all that surfing is a risky sport that requires learning before practicing it, as we do before embarking on climbing or off-piste skiing.

Why worry about the excessive rarity of sharks? What are the consequences for the marine ecosystem?

They have a key role in the ecosystem. They are found at the top of complex food webs, from where they attack species which become too numerous or weakened, sick animals, which could infect their congeners. On part of the east coast of the United States, for example, men have caught so many sharks that they have eliminated them. The ray populations then developed, they decimated the scallops.

Do you think that international protection tools have failed?

Let's be fair: awareness is progressing. The European Union has banned the practice of “finning” - the cutting of shark fins - and I am also convinced that fin soup will eventually go out of fashion with young Chinese people. Several States, especially in the Pacific, have recently created marine protected areas, sanctuaries to shelter the predator. And five additional species have just been included on the list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Cites. But we are far from the target: it would be necessary to institute fishing quotas as for bluefin tuna.