How To Save The Ocean With Alexandra Cousteau

Alexandra Cousteau, the granddaughter of the great explorer, Jacques Yves Cousteau, had come to Monaco to talk about the biodiversity of the ocean. She was invited by Monaco Press Club to present her projects and her "Oceans 2050" foundation, last Friday, at a press conference at the Oceanographic Museum in the room where Prince Albert I had his office. 

Still time to save the ocean

The most important topic of the entire conference relates to the urgency of saving our oceans and recreating abundance. It proposes a deadline: 2050. Even if we cannot redo everything as before, we can still contribute to the reconstitution of its wealth and its preservation.
Alexandra Cousteau explained well the different techniques that can be put in place to contribute to this reconstitution of the ocean and among them we can count the cultures of algae. Larger algae, such as kelp (Macrocystis spp) can reach a length of forty to sixty meters and form underwater forests. They are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet, more productive than tropical forests.

"There are nine areas we need to work on, including overfishing and marine forests. We cannot regain abundance if we spend our life looking at what we have lost. We must look at what we can reconstruct, measure it and have a strategy to achieve it. »Declared Alexandra Cousteau.

One of the solutions: algae cultures

"We have worked on algae which have enormous potential. Wild algae forests are a habitat for fish and absorb CO2 from the water and release it into the leaves buried in the sediment. An enormous quantity of CO2 is thus permanently sequestered, more than on earth. Algae oxygenates the water, which is essential in the fight against global warming and the acidity of the oceans. Once we have balanced the CO2 in the atmosphere, the ocean will breathe in the CO2 that we have produced since the industrial revolution. Carbon is not inherently bad. The problem is, he's a fugitive. We must de-carbonize the atmosphere and re-carbonize the biosphere." Alexandra Cousteau told us with great passion in her voice.

Alexandra Cousteau talks to us about this area of ​​the oceans which occupy a large part of our life but which is still not very interesting for investors. Steps are being taken to be able to change things and a very important part of the going contribution is linked to technology. Like, for example, printing a living coral, underwater, in 3D. An innovation that we did not have before and which fascinates us now. Everything is linked and everything is possible with the help of people, technology and investment.

As the scientist told us, the train is not yet lost. 

By Andra Oprea