Surfers and those who want to eliminate sharks

Letter published in 27 / 08 / 2012 RELEASE

About FRANCOIS SARANO Oceanologist, professional diver, expert of free diving with the big shark (1), SEBASTIAN MABILE Doctor of Law, lawyer at the Paris Bar, specialist in the law of nature protection

The ocean is the last great wilderness of our planet, the last great area of ​​freedom. Sharks are symbols of this unsubdued nature.

Yet, after every accident involving a shark, some claim their elimination. This request challenges us all. For, beyond the question of the extermination of sharks, she asks us about the world in which we want to live and about the men we want to be. Do we want to live in a sanitized world? Do we want an ocean-pool to consume our water sports? Or do we want to live responsible, and therefore free, in a world whose wealth is precisely its irreducibility, its diversity, its unpredictability?

In Reunion, three accidents, dramatic for the victims and their relatives, were enough for the request to eliminate the sharks and for the marine nature reserve to be called into question. On August 8, the headquarters of this reserve was the target of demonstrators. Blowing on these embers, the deputy mayor Thierry Robert launched, on August 12, a petition which considered that "The marine reserve constitutes a sort of giant 'pantry' for sharks" and called for the questioning of its perimeter and its regulations, in other words its existence ...

The Réunion marine nature reserve was created in 2007 to restore and preserve Réunion's marine heritage. All over the world, marine reserves, in which nautical activities are regulated, have proven successful in restoring the diversity and abundance of marine populations. The reserves of Port-Cros (Var) and Scandola (Haute-Corse) in the Mediterranean, and many others in the world, are dazzling examples. Better still, these reserves swarm around them the "overflow" they produce. We know that 20% of Mauritanian fishing comes from the Banc d'Arguin marine reserve. This “reserve effect” has been well understood. At the end of the United Nations conference on sustainable development Rio + 20 in June, our leaders reaffirmed the objective of protecting 10% of marine and coastal areas. In France, the strategy for the creation and management of marine protected areas, adopted in April, doubles this global objective. On Reunion Island, the reserve is participating in this global effort.

More than 23 million athletes practice surfing, a magnificent but dangerous activity, and sharks have nothing to do with it: 60% of injuries are inflicted by the board itself, 17% are due to collisions between surfers and 13% to impact against rocks or corals. But the most serious, fatal accident is drowning, which strikes even the most experienced surfers. So disappeared Mark Foo, Donnie Solomon, Todd Chesser, Jay Moriarity and Malik Joyeux. The monstrous waves they faced let think that their happiness came precisely from the fact that, conscious and responsible, they took the risks of their talented practice. Having learned the sea, its waves and its currents, they assumed, as adults, the risks inherent in any activity in a hostile environment. They thus expressed their freedom.

To prevent the very rare bites of sharks (less than a hundred per year), should we eliminate them and destroy their habitat? Or should we learn that when they hunt in the evening and at dawn in cloudy water, sharks can confuse the surfer with prey? The sailor stays at the port when there is a storm warning, why the surfer would not give up the boat when the circumstances do not lend themselves to it? Why, unlike mountaineers, speleologists, divers, would surfers be exempt from knowing and respecting the environment in which they practice their talent?

The vast majority of the surfing community want a preserved ocean, with its unpredictable risks. Founded in 1984 in California, the Surfrider Foundation association, symbol of these generations of surfers who are committed to protecting the oceans, remains very cautious in the face of the sometimes violent reactions of certain Reunionese.

Punitive fishing for sharks "Guilty of aggression", can it be effective? Practiced in other parts of the world, these fisheries have always been in vain. On the other hand, how many useless captures, reinforcing the great slaughter of sharks for their fins that threatens extinction of most species! Those who think sharks "are useless" are mistaken: life is not a collection of juxtaposed and independent species, life is "relationships". The close links that unite the individuals of an ecosystem mean that the removal of one of them destabilizes the whole. A superior predator, the shark is essential to the fragile balance of marine ecosystems. We know, for example, that the collapse of the North American clam fisheries, which put hundreds of fishermen out of work, is due to the overfishing of sharks ... The disappearance of sharks has led to the proliferation of their prey, rays, themselves large consumers of the shellfish sought after by fishermen. This is why the European Commission adopted, in 2009, an action plan for the protection of sharks and why similar initiatives are developing around the world. The Palau, Bahamas, Maldives and Honduras have already banned all shark fishing, aware of its importance for the marine environment. And then, is it really necessary to know "what is the purpose" of living creatures to preserve them? Because, if we had to enter a world where only the useful and the profitable were kept, what would we keep?

On the other hand, if we know how to make room for the shark, the wolf, the tiger, the gorilla and the elephant, all the cumbersome animals, all those who are insignificant, all those whom we do not know until the existence, then we will also respect each of us in its difference.