Manu San Félix, marine biologist, diver and photographer living in Formentera (Balearic Islands), is a supporter of a petition to collect signatures. ‘Reserve30’ to force administrations 30% of the Mediterranean will be fully protected by 2030In accordance with the mandate initiated by the UN for the entire planet. This part of the world, along with the Arctic, is the region that is warming fastest due to climate change, causing serious damage to marine biodiversity. Therefore, St. Felix encourages us to move from words to actions.
-What led to the support of the Reserve 30 Mediterráneo campaign, perhaps the lack of enthusiasm of public institutions?
-I arrived in Formentera when I was 26. At that time, I was a young marine biologist, a PhD student, and I was dreaming of seeing the Mediterranean full of giant groupers and seals, which the great Jacques-Yves Cousteau had discovered for my generation. and magnificent sea beds full of red corals, crabs and lobsters… I was convinced that within a few years we would regain everything we had destroyed because we would protect it well. A little more than 30 years have passed, and when I look back, thirty years have included many speeches, meetings, creation of marine protected areas, communications in the press, etc. for the protection of the Mediterranean. I see you struggling with.
“If we look at what comes to market today and what came 50 years ago, we can clearly see that we are facing a sea of extinction.”
However, we still cannot make any progress in the recovery of the Mediterranean, and the situation is getting worse. Large fish have almost disappeared and more and more species are in critical condition. When I jump into the water, I realize how much we have lost the quality of the water. When we look at what comes to a market today and what came 50 years ago, we can clearly see that we are faced with a sea of extinction. This campaign was born when I thought about trying to reach out to people to show them the serious situation in the Mediterranean and the urgency of action, and to achieve this, unite society by signing the ‘Mediterranean Declaration’. We need to have a greater conservation ambition to return the sea to the sea it had until the 1960s.
-What is the planned procedure and schedule for this campaign, i.e. how many signatures do you hope to collect and what will be done with these signatures next?
-We aim to collect at least half a million signatures, but being aware of the difficulty, I aim for more. I feel like an impossible project but I know impossible things can be achieved in this life. The calendar bears the name of the campaign: Reserve 30, meaning to achieve 30 percent protection by 2030. But I would like us to be successful and get signatures within a year. However, we are prepared for this to be a long and difficult task. After receiving the signatures accompanied by National Geographic, we intend to take them to the Government to inspire the determination to save the Mediterranean and to pass legislation to achieve this.
-Do you see the goal of protecting 30% of the planet’s oceans by 2030 as possible, as accepted by the UN and other world organizations?
-I find this feasible and that’s why I believe in the campaign I support and combine it with my work on the Pristine Seas project, which also fights to protect remote places in the oceans and protect 30% of the planet by 2030. This is the challenge signed by 196 countries at the UN biodiversity conference in Montreal at the end of the year. Having international support makes me feel that this is possible, but there is a lot of work to be done ahead.
-Fishermen sometimes oppose measures to protect the marine environment. To what extent do they benefit from these protection figures?
-Reviving local fishing (and I emphasize ‘local’) is one of the main goals of this campaign. It is necessary to allocate space to continue fishing: There are many examples that show that fishing is a good business. There are already many success stories, both in and outside the Mediterranean, and that is why more and more fishermen around the world are following conservation initiatives because they know that more catch benefits them.
“It is necessary to allocate space for fishing to continue: there are many examples that show that fishing is a good business”
Only 0.23% of the Mediterranean is closed to fishing, which makes no sense. It’s about doing at sea what a farmer does on land: he doesn’t kill all the cattle, but instead separates the largest, the most productive, breeding ones, and sells the rest. Just reserve areas, with the advantage that you don’t need to feed at sea, build a stable or even buy your flock. The sea is very productive and grateful. If we do not want to lose the sow, wait and reap mentality that human beings have maintained on land for thousands of years, it needs to be brought to the Mediterranean today.
-For the new marine protected areas you request to be successful, management will be needed to prevent new ones. paper parksthat is, parks that exist only on paper. This means staff and money. Do you think that the administrations will make this effort, considering that the area to be protected should increase significantly?
-The exact opposite. Creating a marine protected area means more income, not more costs. Much more. If the decision had been left to a Minister of Economy, we would undoubtedly have reached 30 percent very quickly. I give an example: The largest marine protected area on the planet, and therefore with the highest management and oversight costs, is in Hawaii and is called Papahanaumokuakea. Just five years after its establishment, tuna catches in the region increased by 54%. In monetary terms, this means that we will be talking about a revenue increase of hundreds of millions of dollars. Very few businesses offer this kind of profitability in such a short period of time.
“The Mediterranean is like a current account that has run out of funds because we have been drawing too much for too long.”
Today, fisheries are in a critical and very sensitive situation, and this situation can only survive thanks to the subsidies and aid the sector receives. The situation is quite worrying. To fish, you need to go further and use more kilometers of fishing gear. In the 40s and 50s, people were fishing and paddling from the same beaches. Akdeniz is like an account that’s running out of balance because we’ve been making too many withdrawals for too long.
-The situation in the Mediterranean is particularly critical due to global warming. Is there time to prevent this basin from completely collapsing? What room for maneuver do we have now?
-That’s it. We face a huge challenge that worries and frightens us. We know the problem, but it is harder to interpret what the consequences will be. The first measure to prevent this collapse is to protect. Because the healthier the Mediterranean is, the better it can resist the thermal crisis it is currently facing. Like any organism or ecosystem, the better your health, the better you will be able to withstand challenges. I’m an optimist and I think we should avoid the apocalyptic tone because I really think we’re on time. But there is no margin left anymore, the time to act and change is today, now. We must do now what children and young people wish they had done 30 years later. If we do it right we can save the Mediterranean, if we don’t act… I feel like we are facing our last opportunity.
-Another problem it faces is the disposal of plastics. It seems that the administrations have made little progress in this area… What is your impression of this?
-As for plastic, it’s a terrible problem, but there will be a quicker solution. More and more harmless substitute materials will emerge without the problem of permanence in the natural environment. I think the ‘Plastic Age’ will be short lived. As we talked about in this interview, there are a lot of geniuses at work to invent these new materials. In the meantime, we must reduce its use to what is absolutely necessary and, above all, recycling. We don’t do it the way we should because we are lazy and not very smart. Therefore, each of us should try to buy and consume a minimum amount of plastic and recycle everything we use.
– What do you think about the growing threat posed by tourist ships, which are increasingly questioned due to the multiple environmental impacts they create?
-I think it takes a long time to set limits on cruise and tourism. Failure to do so is a symptom of a greedy society that never settles, always wants more. There are more and more cruise ships, more traffic at airports, more ships coming by sail, we do not stop building… It is time to stop and think about where we are going, without limits. The future is not promising in any way, either in the Mediterranean or on the planet.
Web to sign In favor of the campaign: https://reserva30.org/
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