Philippe Cury, oceanographer and biologist at the IRD, specialist in the ecosystem management of marine resources and international reference, was the guest of Itinéraires Découvertes.
Man has long believed marine resources to be inexhaustible, like Alexandre Dumas who imagined in 1871 being able to cross the Atlantic “on the back of a codfish”. But since then, fishing has become industrial and extends over 200 million km2. Fish is today the most traded product in the world.
As the population grows, wild fish capture stagnates while aquaculture booms. Overexploitation leads to a paradox: we fish more but we catch less. Climate change is making the situation worse: species are migrating, seabirds are starved of food and jellyfish are proliferating. A reduction in fisheries of 20 to 24% is expected by the end of the 21st century.
To succeed in a “blue transformation”, it is necessary to fight against CO2, support artisanal fishing, consume sustainable wild fish and favor low trophic level aquaculture (algae, mussels, sardines).
However, these practices come up against the inertia of economic and political lobbies as well as the denial of future challenges.
