April 2013
abstract
Responsabilité & Environnement
La mer et les ressources marines
Issue editor:
Jacques SERRIS
Issue 70
Oceanic resources: The potential? Evolving techniques?
The ocean, a dynamic source of business, wealth and growth
By Francis Vallat
Président du Cluster Maritime Français
This article does not come from scientists or engineers. It is simply a contribution from an organization (Cluster Maritime Français) fully involved on two fronts in the battle for sustainable development: economics and ecology. It focuses on new or traditional oceanic resources some of which risk extinction or asphyxia and on those undergoing developments or expected to grow. It also focuses on the sea as a resource, ever more a vector of human activities ranging from transportation to the technology for working the sea and its bed. To be as constructive as possible, this article tries to identify the major challenges to be met so that the sea — a fragile environment and a nourishing place of resources — be, indeed, the future of the Earth. It does not fail to discuss the place that France can or must have in the changes under way.
For a sustainable management of fishing
By Philippe Cury
Directeur de Recherche IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement)
Are the oceans losing their stock of fish? Why are there so many fish in stores even though the ocean is supposedly being depleted? Why do fishers claim that there is still the same quantity of fish? Given the ups and downs in fishing, will it be replaced with fish farming? Since several problems related to halieutical resources are arising in an ever more strained situation with regard to a safe and secure food supply, we need to find new solutions and better understand the future of ocean fishing.
Changes in fishing techniques and their consequences
By Pierre-Georges DACHICOURT
Membre associé du Conseil économique, social et environnemental (CESE), ancien Président du Comité National des Pêches Maritimes et des Élevages Marins (CNPMEM), de 2003 à 2012
Pierre-Georges DACHICOURT Membre associé du Conseil économique, social et environnemental (CESE), ancien Président du Comité National des Pêches Maritimes et des Élevages Marins (CNPMEM), de 2003 à 2012 and Emilie GÉLARD Chargée de mission au CNPMEM As techniques are honed, fishers are adapting to change, since they are well aware that the future of their business depends on their ability to analyze the moving context. Their future also depends on the oceans and marine resources. For several years now, the European Commission has held up the promise of sustainable fishing, based on reducing the bycatch thanks to improving the selectivity of the catch. Fishers are contributing actively to this. A change in techniques comes in hand with a change of mentalities, as reflected in the relations between scientists and fishers, the latter now seen as sentinels of the sea. French fishers are very much involved in developing a rational management of halieutical resources.
Major issues in fish farming in France and around the world
By Chantal CAHU
Directeur de recherche, IFREMER
The production of farmed fish worldwide rose to more than 60 million metric tons in 2010, and eleven million people are employed in this business. To continue growing under sustainable conditions, fish farming must cope with scientific, economic and societal issues, three of them addressed herein. First of all, how, given the competition for access to resources, to feed fish while limiting the pressure on the supply of wild foodstuffs and cereals? Secondly, how to produce healthy fish in a changing environment by understanding how pathologies develop and reducing the contamination by pollutants? Finally, how to ensure that the practices and output of fish farming will be sustainable given the ecosystemic services rendered by this business? Aquaculture’s development depends on research in biology being conducted with efficient tools (such as genomic sequencing).
Spontaneous algae, farmed algae and their uses
By Yannick LERAT
Directeur scientifique, Centre d’Étude et de Valorisation des Algues (CEVA), (Presqu’île de Pen Lan, à Pleubian – Finistère)
In addition to the harvest from the wild biomass, nearly fifteen million metric tons of algae are produced worldwide each year. Macroalgae are mainly used for the human food supply. Algae for food will be a key issue in both Oriental and Western lands. Seaweeds also provide molecules of interest for our health (as food supplements) and are part of the biomass (for purposes related to chemistry and energy). The production of algae for the food supply will very likely enter into competition with their production for the chemical industry and as a source of energy. The challenge is to harmoniously develop these applications.
The industrialized production of microalgae
By Pierre CALLEJA
Président directeur général et fondateur de Fermentalg
The industrial production of microalgae started in the mid-1960s but took off in the 1970s when the complete food chain as it exists in the ocean had to be reproduced on fish farms. Thanks to the ongoing evolution in technology, it is now possible to produce microalgae on a large, industrial scale, with a high yield and at a low cost. Given the opportunities opened in several fields, the 21st century might well be the microalgae century.
Marine materials (gravel, maerl…)
By David CLAVELEAU, Nicolas DELSINNE, Agnès GARCON, Thierry HAUCHARD, Laetitia PAPORE and Christophe VERHAGUE
Membres de la commission Granulats marins de l’UNPG
The UNPG (Union Nationale des Producteurs de Granulats) has adopted a policy for working resources in line with the standards laid down in the National Strategy for Biodiversity. This professional organization’s voluntary commitment was officially recognized by the minister of Ecology, Delphine Batho, during a recent conference, “The time of engagement for biodiversity”, held on 17 December 2012. The extraction of marine granules is one of the sectors in this business that has conducted studies for reducing the unwanted effects of working the sea and determining the capacity for “recolonizing” an area once it is no longer worked. Two studies are presented herein: the first, conducted at two locations in eastern Manche Department; and the second, in the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Loire River. Besides the findings on the environmental impact of extraction from the seabed, these initiatives provide evidence of how determined these professionals are to develop sustainable activities.
The ocean’s mineral resources
State of knowledge about mineral deposits
By Yves FOUQUET
Unité de Recherche Géosciences Marines, Laboratoire de Géochimie et Métallogénie de l’IFREMER (Brest)
Given the strong demand from emerging countries, tensions have, in the past few years, flared up in the supply of basic and precious metals. Worldwide consumption of the fifteen major metals rose 20-fold over a century, while the world’s population only increased by a factor of 3,6. Prices have soared. Four axes for responding to the growing pressure from demand are discussed: recycling, optimizing technology, substitution and prospecting for new sources, including in the ocean. Three potential sources in the depths of the oceans are: sulfur from hydrothermal vents, crusts bearing cobalt and nodules containing several metals. These sources might contain not only basic metals (such as copper, zinc, lead, nickel or cobalt) or precious ones (such as gold or silver), but also rare earths as well as platinum, indium or germanium. The last are now important owing to their uses in advanced technologies and “green energy”. How do these oceanic minerals compare with the known reserves on the five continents?
Energy from the sea: Future sources
By Georgina GRENON
Chargée de mission pour les Filières Vertes à la direction générale de l’Énergie et du Climat (DGEC), ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie
Georgina GRENON Chargée de mission pour les Filières Vertes à la direction générale de l’Énergie et du Climat (DGEC), ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie and Julien THOMAS Ingénieur des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts, adjoint au chef du bureau des Énergies renouvelables à la direction générale de l’Énergie et du Climat (DGEC), ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie Marine sources of energy represent a potential that theoretically far overshoots the current need for electricity worldwide. They will help us advance in removing carbon from our electricity mix while moving toward independence in energy. Although this potential has not yet been actualized, the promising results of initial tests make industrialists and engineers dream, as well as the people who live near these sources and the countries concerned. Everyone wants this lever for growth and job creation, not to mention for the achievement of objectives set in the field of energy. As with all major innovations in energy, the cycle of development is long; and the risks related to a feasible development at controlled costs call for a long-term approach.
Geopolitical aspects: Issues, tensions and disputes
Reciprocal influences between the legal status of maritime zones and of marine resources
By Niki ALOUPI
Professeur à l’Université de Strasbourg
To the status of each maritime zone, national of international, corresponds a different status for the zone’s maritime resources, whether biological or not, for the waters that cover the zone and for what lies beneath the water as well as beneath the earth below the water. Trends in international law illustrate the interactions between these two legal statuses: maritime zoning has changed in line with technological developments for ever more intensively tapping marine resources; and international rules for these zones govern the management of resources. This trend also reflects a deep change in the interest shown by the international community — a shift from the single concern for vouchsafing each country’s sovereign prerogatives individually toward a determination to protect the interests of less developed countries and of humanity as a whole.
Zones, a revolutionary concept or an unrealistic dream?
By Élie JARMACHE
Chargé de mission au Secrétariat général de la Mer, membre de la commission juridique et technique de l’Autorité internationale des fonds marins
The international community has adopted the principle that what lies under the sea is the joint heritage of humanity except for the zones under national jurisdiction. Working the mineral resources in the ocean depends on an arrangement in which the keyword is sharing: sharing mining sites by setting up a reserved sector, and sharing income by redistributing the profits drawn from selling the products derived from these resources. Despite the recent spurt of interest in the seabed (evidenced by the increase in applications for permits to prospect for the three mineral sources subject to regulation: nodules, sulfur and cobalt), we are unable to clearly predict when these resources will actually be worked. The principle of a common heritage for humanity, as laid down under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, has a history marked with episodes that lead us to raise questions about its effectiveness and about its relation with the principle of reality, a principle referring to both economics and what can fittingly be called the ecological imperative.
For an effective, sustainable governance of the oceans
By Christophe LEFEBVRE
Conseiller de l’Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature (UICN) pour l’Océan mondial, délégué aux affaires européennes et internationales de l’Agence des aires marines protégées
Christophe LEFEBVRE Conseiller de l’Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature (UICN) pour l’Océan mondial, délégué aux affaires européennes et internationales de l’Agence des aires marines protégées The oceans harbor much of our planet’s biodiversity. Given their volume, they also occupy a major part of the space available for life on Earth. They determine the climate, condition our planet’s chemistry, emit 70% of the oxygen in the atmosphere, absorb the largest percentage of CO2 and represent the ultimate fresh water reservoir on earth owing to the formation of clouds from evaporated seawater. Any imbalance in the oceans inevitably affects humanity.
France’s maritime strategy and its prospects
By Hervé MOULINIER
Président du pôle de compétitivité Mer-Bretagne
Georges Bernanos said, “We do not submit to the future, we make it.” Without strategic initiatives, national and worldwide, the conquest of outer space would not have happened. Without strategic initiatives, the development of the sea’s immense potential risks failure. This new, nearby but mysterious, frontier is so complex that it needs to be understood and explained. We can tackle this complexity from several angles. Choosing to do so via economics (the exploitation of resources) seems to be best suited for advancing toward an unprecedented development of maritime activities and, therefore, the creation of jobs. This article discusses the characteristics of a maritime strategy, the recognition of the issues and the assertion of an ambition, before delving into the reasons why such a strategy is so complex. A panorama of approaches and initiatives presents what has been accomplished and what remains to be done so that France’s maritime strategy be taken into account in all policy fields.
Maritime policy and marine research in Europe: Between the conquest of the seas and the protection of the environment
By Waddah SAAB
Commission européenne, coordinateur pour la stratégie de recherche maritime et marine
The EU’s coast and marine policy has a twofold ambition, the conquest of marine zones and protection of the oceanic environment. Launched in 2007, it seeks to develop a more integrated approach that takes into account the impact of human activities on marine ecosystems. It is based on initiatives such as planning, marine regions, the framework directive on the marine environment, and the EU’s strategy for marine and maritime research. This strategy seeks to implement a strategic approach to marine research so as to maximize the impact on public policies and on innovations in maritime industries.