Interview of Céline Liret : “To write a desirable future for the oceans, we need to share a common maritime narrative based on scientific knowledge and know-how“
The second national symposium for the Decade of the Ocean brought together some sixty French players in the ocean sciences in Brest, ahead of the world conference due to start in Barcelona on 10 April. Céline Liret, a doctor in biological oceanology and Scientific Director of Océanopolis in Brest (France), hosted the conference on 12-13 March 2024. She summarises the main points expressed by the scientific community around these four themes: observation, the challenges of extreme environments, the nourishing ocean, the ocean and us.
Interview by Marguerite Castel
Cover photo : Céline Liret, scientific director of Oceanopolis (Brest, France) © Benjamin Deroche
At the end of the symposium you organised at Océanopolis in Brest with the French Ministry for Ecological Transition, you emphasised that the Decade of the Ocean is a catalyst for change, can you explain it ?
The Decade calls for a movement in the world of research towards transdisciplinarity. The scientific community needs to break down its silos and set up projects that bring together physics, chemistry, biology and also the human and social sciences. Everyone needs to go beyond their specialist knowledge of their own discipline and adapt their methodology and language. It also means integrating engineering and technology further upstream in a project.
These exchanges have also shown that there is a need to open up to the world, to collaborate on a European and international scale. Particularly when it comes to data: to make comparisons, we need the same methods for measuring the ocean, which knows no borders!
Progress is being made: the LEGOS geophysics and space oceanography laboratory is developing a global database on ocean oxygen and a GO2Dat atlas that will be freely accessible. The European EMO BON network will coordinate long-term observation of marine biodiversity, with 16 stations from the Arctic to the Red Sea.
Research is also expressing the need to restore meaning, to move forward in a cross-disciplinary way in conjunction with society, and to integrate its various stakeholders (companies, associations, local authorities) in order to understand their expectations.
It also needs to accelerate towards simple, concrete, sometimes low-cost solutions that can be rolled out on small, manageable or even local scales.
Which of the projects presented at the conference embody these changes?
By labelling projects, the Decade gives them visibility. During our discussions in Brest, we highlighted them around four themes: observation, the challenges of extreme environments, the nourishing ocean and the ocean and us.
Among them, deep-sea research is a good example of this openness to other stakeholders such as businesses and the public, and to other disciplines enabling a global approach. Knowledge of the deep sea is a major challenge.
Deep Rest, presented by Jozée Sarrazin, an ecologist at Ifremer’s deep-sea research laboratory, takes up these challenges. To prevent the possibility of deep-sea mining, researchers are studying two remarkable ecosystems: hydrothermal springs and polymetallic nodule fields. Companies wishing to exploit these mineral resources are also involved in the project. How can we extract and protect, and mitigate the impacts?
Life Deeper, coordinated by Marie-Anne Cambon (Ifremer deep ocean lab), also offers a multidisciplinary approach, involving 11 research units. Its ambition is to unravel the natural geological, geochemical and biological workings of deep ocean ecosystems, in order to inform decision-making on the path towards a low-carbon global economy.
Another interesting example, this time on the crucial issue of the ocean as a source of food, is Patricia Ricard (Institut océanographique Paul-Ricard), who is arguing for a circular food economy. Her project for an urban perma-aquaculture farm takes up the challenge with concrete solutions.
The deep seabed is a major research challenge: how can we explore, protect and reduce the impact of potential mining operations?
What are the Decade’s researchers expecting, beyond this common framework, for a sustainable ocean?
They are calling for resources to fund more research (posts, equipment), and this is nothing new. The needs are specific to each project. Research is mainly funded by the public purse; private funding should be developed. Research is also an economic activity, fuelling a technological sector.
Researchers also need to understand the legal aspects, as we can see in the case of the deep seas and polar environments. Human activities are intensifying there, particularly tourism, with definite impacts at a time when the environment is already fragile. The Amure laboratory‘s Polar Issues Chair highlights the importance of combining law and economics with ocean research.
I would add that the community needs to show how science is constructed in order to give it meaning; to feel that society is in tune with it and vice versa. Scientific knowledge needs to be more widely used in school textbooks and by political bodies.
How can science be better placed at the heart of political decision-making?
To make informed decisions, politicians need to be trained and acquire more scientific knowledge to understand all the issues involved. In France, for example, scientific workshops are offered to members of parliament, and some regions have set up consultation bodies made up of experts. The Brittany Region, for example, has set up the High Council for Climate here in Brittany.
The European University Institute of the Sea in Brest offers training courses for local authorities and more specific courses for journalists and players in the blue economy.
The next stages in international cooperation are approaching, and what priorities are emerging?
On 10 April, the world conference will begin in Barcelona. It will define the priorities for action for the period 2021-2030, including these challenges from the White Paper : understanding and combating marine pollution (1); protecting and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity (2); unlocking ocean solutions to climate change(5).
In other words, how can we make the ocean clean, healthy and sustainable? A whole host of questions need to be answered: how can we limit pollution from land to sea? How can we predict what will happen in 2100 if the temperature rises by 2 degrees?
The aim of this conference is to define a mid-term roadmap. The next step will be the World Ocean Summit in Nice in June 2025 (UNOC 3). Let’s make sure that the decisions taken by the Member States are translated into action!
Is the story of a possible and desirable oceanic future being written?
To write a desirable future for the ocean, we need to share a common maritime narrative based on scientific knowledge and know-how. We need to educate society as a whole to understand that the ocean is at the heart of life on earth, yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Participants at the national conference for the Decade of Ocean Sciences 2024 © Océanopolis