Ecocean: concrete solutions to assist nature

The pressures exerted by man and his activities on coasts and coastal ecosystems grows stronger year by year. Recent years have certainly seen an awareness of the need to protect biodiversity. But to go further, and thus comply with Commitment 10 of the AIVP Agenda 2030 - Protecting biodiversity, it is necessary to conceive and put into practice concrete, operational solutions. That is precisely the reason for the existence of Ecocean, as we discussed with Gilles Lecaillon, founder and current CEO of Ecocean. Ecocean has been a member of AIVP since 2017 AIVP – Pollution, habitat destruction, overexploitation of marine resources, and of course climate change: there are ever more threats to coastal marine biodiversity. Ecocean was founded in 2003 to meet them. What are your objectives and what technical solutions do you propose? Gilles Lecaillon, CEO of Ecocean - We decided to concentrate on one part of the life cycle of coastal marine animals. A life cycle that consists of several complicated stages, in each of which high mortality occurs naturally. The latest stages are crucial, and this life cycle is closely connected with shorelines all over the world. However the shoreline has been severely transformed by world populations, and ports and marinas have a real impact and therefore also a role to play. Everybody wants to live by the sea, and the artificialisation of the coast is a direct consequence of this dream. Coastal fish, crabs, shrimps, sea urchins, octopus and other coastal animals all need, at a certain stage of their lives, complex habitats that are little areas of coastal seafloor in good condition. These are essential habitats which provide ecological functions (e.g. nurseries) that are vital for a properly functioning ecosystem. Ecocean's idea was to focus its actions on the post-larval stages when they reach the coast. Helping a fish or a crab that has a one in a thousand chance of survival, by helping it to grow to a refuge size where it has an 80% chance of surviving to adulthood, is a concrete action that can help to change things! But even if the idea of helping nature may appear absurd, today there are too many of us and we exert too many pressures on these marine ecosystems. As a result, ecological engineering, what you might call engineering to help nature, is one of the solutions. Of course, it is not the only one. We must continue to protect and preserve natural ecosystems in good health as we do with Marine Protected Areas, continue to improve water quality, continue to raise awareness and above all avoid degrading the environment. These actions should always be the guiding principles of all that we do. At Ecocean, we have innovated and looked for practical operational solutions; and of course we have shown their ecological effectiveness (numerous theses and R&D projects) to reduce Man's impact on the coastal marine environment.We offer two solutions: The Biohut©, which is a patented artificial…