[Music]
yesterday I was walking on the beach I
was feeling the sand on my feet I was
hearing the sound of the waves of the
oceans
and by hearing all this sound it
remembered me a lot about my young age
when I was a small kid when I first
discovered the first beaches when I was
walking in the sand with a small crabs
running around me when I was looking at
a clear ocean when I started to venture
for the first time put my feet in the
water looking at all these colorful fish
swimming around me looking at the corals
looking at the reef over there the
Barrier Reef this limit between the
lagoon and the oceans then I decided to
put my head under water and to swim to
this barrier I wanted to see what it was
beyond this barrier I crossed the reef
and when I crossed the reef
I saw the vastness of the oceans the
ocean has no limit I tried to dive deep
to the limit of my breath to see whether
I could see the bottom of the ocean but
the bottom couldn’t be found I went up I
looked around me it was blue around me
the vastness of the ocean inspired me
for my whole life then I decided to
become an oceanographer I wanted to
study the oceans to understand what was
happening in those vast spaces how the
species were interacting why the oceans
were so important I came back to
Mauritius and then I started to study
lagoons create marine protected areas
discover new fish and while working I
started to think about myself sometimes
scientists think that they know
everything
scientists know nothing you know that we
only know 10 percent of the oceans ten
percent of the oceans the oceans have
been on earth for 3.8 billion years
just imagine three thousand eight
hundred million years the oceans cover
70% of the surface of our planet we
should be called blue planet not Planet
Earth
when we talk about the depth of the
ocean when I try to find the bottom do
you know that you can fit 1,200 floors
before you reach the surface of the
ocean you know that the oceans produce
85% of the oxygen we breathe and they
absorb 50% of the carbon dioxide we emit
oceans are so vast so powerful and you
know that there have been five massive
extinction events on the earth and the
oceans have survived those events where
75% of the life on Earth has disappeared
the oceans are so powerful how can they
fail but then suddenly I started
thinking that we have now entered the
Anthropocene do you know this big word
Anthropocene Anthropocene is the age of
humans humans have started to disrupt
this vast giant and the giant is now
starting slowly to cripple year after
year when I continue diving in the
lagoons I started to see the chorus
dying corals those corals are cherished
so much when I was young
started to die fish were disappearing
you know that around 50% of the corals
around the world have already vanished
50% half of the corals one-third of the
fish in the oceans have already been
wiped out and the two are the thirds
only fully exploited and they may
disappear in the coming years do you
know that they are 5.25 trillion pieces
of plastics in the ocean 5.25 trillion
pieces of plastics in the oceans and you
know so that nowadays states have
started to take over and
start a new Eldorado now countries have
started to extend their exclusive
economic zone to try to conquer those
vast ocean spaces we have an exclusive
economic zone 200 nautical miles now
states want to go to 350 nautical miles
750 750 kilometers from the coastline so
it means that by 2050 maybe all the
oceans will have been parceled out
parceled out and that we will never say
anymore that we have international
waters Wow
what a sad story can I tell you a sad
story like this tonight but while
walking on the beach suddenly I found a
shell in the sand a small shell you
would tell me but a shell which had a
message for me as if the ocean has sent
me a message for this shell to tell me
no no start being worried there is hope
can a small shell like this bring hope
to humanity then my mind started to work
out this shell is a cone and cones are
fabulous shells you look at them like
this they look very normal but they like
to eat fresh fish a shell eating fresh
fish yeah they have been on earth since
541 million years and in 541 million
years they have survived five extinction
events and they have developed unique
weapons to fish they have a dart with a
poison and this poison paralyzes live
fish allowing the shell to come slowly
and eat it fresh it doesn’t kill the
fish
it just paralyzes it so that’s a good
meal but then again was the link with
the future of humanity poisons can save
humanity these toxins that I shall
produce are known as kunu toxins cones
Canoe toxins there are around 100,000
Kuna toxins in the world out of which
only 0.1%
have been studied by pharmaceutical
companies and you know what they have
derived a painkiller which is hundred to
two hundred times stronger than morphine
morphine is a painkiller that you get at
the end of your life which affects your
brain and which becomes toxic you get
used to it but this toxin has found the
cure for excruciating pain it has found
the cure for Alzheimer Parkinson
inflammation diseases and so many other
organisms so this shell yes can be the
future of humanity a shell can be the
future of humanity yes walking further I
found a jellyfish on the on the beach
jellyfish stings you shouldn’t touch it
of course but you know that this
jellyfish is immortal it has the secret
of immortality it doesn’t die you know
that jellyfish have appeared on earth
700 million years ago it was the first
multicellular organism which appeared on
earth 700 million years survived fight
extinction events holds the secret for
immortality who in this room holds the
secret for immortality we have big
computers we have brains we all have
scientists but this small jellyfish has
the secret for immortality inspiring
isn’t it and there are lots and lots of
species that we can find around the
world so many areas of the oceans that
haven’t been explored you know that Iran
Mauritius
there are around thousand seamounts
seamount being mountains that drop from
the bottom of the ocean 4000 meters but
haven’t emerged and on all those sea
mounts they are like Oasis with specific
biodiversity which hasn’t even been
discovered more cones more jellyfish
more living organisms more Hope more
hope for the future I think that humans
are very strange creatures sometimes
they need to be really facing a great
danger and being facing a danger before
being able to act and to change and to
innovate to make the brains work and we
are today
at the crossroads we have a choice to
make all of us here in this room all
around the world either we take the road
for fish over-exploitation oil and gas
we start to distribute our oceans we
start aquaculture to destroy coastal
areas we continue to pollute away
plastic and in 2050 I can guarantee you
our oceans will look dark oxygen free
with a few jellyfish and lots of plastic
the other way and which we have to take
is a sustainable future trying to have a
different relation with nature trying to
have a look at the oceans in a different
way it’s not a cash box it’s the future
of humanity you’ve seen with the cone
with the jellyfish
there’s so many marine organisms around
us and the church has already started to
be made because today around the world
many young people are starting to
mobilize I was the first oceanography
emerges today many young people wants to
study oceanography they want to
understand they want to act they protest
against projects which they feel is
affecting their future education is
taking over and this is starting private
companies have also started to see the
benefits that we can get from the ocean
apart from oil and gas
apart from aquaculture apart from
passing of the oceans the common ocean
of humanity people have started like
this pharmaceutical company to be
inspired by cones by jellyfish and by
the sea mounts and I’m organizing an
expedition in the seamount around
Mauritius in the coming months this is
the hope of humanity so we are at
Crossroads ladies and gentlemen we are
at crossroads we have a choice to make
today and I’m sure that when in 2050 be
an old man coming back again in this
Beach why I found this cone when I was
walking looking at a colorful fish that
I’ll be able to say to my children who
are in the room today I have made the
right choice I have acted for my future
and I have made the right choice to
create a better future because our
oceans are our future thank you [Applause]
yesterday I was walking on the beach I
was feeling the sand on my feet I was
hearing the sound of the waves of the
oceans
and by hearing all this sound it
remembered me a lot about my young age
when I was a small kid when I first
discovered the first beaches when I was
walking in the sand with a small crabs
running around me when I was looking at
a clear ocean when I started to venture
for the first time put my feet in the
water looking at all these colorful fish
swimming around me looking at the corals
looking at the reef over there the
Barrier Reef this limit between the
lagoon and the oceans then I decided to
put my head under water and to swim to
this barrier I wanted to see what it was
beyond this barrier I crossed the reef
and when I crossed the reef
I saw the vastness of the oceans the
ocean has no limit I tried to dive deep
to the limit of my breath to see whether
I could see the bottom of the ocean but
the bottom couldn’t be found I went up I
looked around me it was blue around me
the vastness of the ocean inspired me
for my whole life then I decided to
become an oceanographer I wanted to
study the oceans to understand what was
happening in those vast spaces how the
species were interacting why the oceans
were so important I came back to
Mauritius and then I started to study
lagoons create marine protected areas
discover new fish and while working I
started to think about myself sometimes
scientists think that they know
everything
scientists know nothing you know that we
only know 10 percent of the oceans ten
percent of the oceans the oceans have
been on earth for 3.8 billion years
just imagine three thousand eight
hundred million years the oceans cover
70% of the surface of our planet we
should be called blue planet not Planet
Earth
when we talk about the depth of the
ocean when I try to find the bottom do
you know that you can fit 1,200 floors
before you reach the surface of the
ocean you know that the oceans produce
85% of the oxygen we breathe and they
absorb 50% of the carbon dioxide we emit
oceans are so vast so powerful and you
know that there have been five massive
extinction events on the earth and the
oceans have survived those events where
75% of the life on Earth has disappeared
the oceans are so powerful how can they
fail but then suddenly I started
thinking that we have now entered the
Anthropocene do you know this big word
Anthropocene Anthropocene is the age of
humans humans have started to disrupt
this vast giant and the giant is now
starting slowly to cripple year after
year when I continue diving in the
lagoons I started to see the chorus
dying corals those corals are cherished
so much when I was young
started to die fish were disappearing
you know that around 50% of the corals
around the world have already vanished
50% half of the corals one-third of the
fish in the oceans have already been
wiped out and the two are the thirds
only fully exploited and they may
disappear in the coming years do you
know that they are 5.25 trillion pieces
of plastics in the ocean 5.25 trillion
pieces of plastics in the oceans and you
know so that nowadays states have
started to take over and
start a new Eldorado now countries have
started to extend their exclusive
economic zone to try to conquer those
vast ocean spaces we have an exclusive
economic zone 200 nautical miles now
states want to go to 350 nautical miles
750 750 kilometers from the coastline so
it means that by 2050 maybe all the
oceans will have been parceled out
parceled out and that we will never say
anymore that we have international
waters Wow
what a sad story can I tell you a sad
story like this tonight but while
walking on the beach suddenly I found a
shell in the sand a small shell you
would tell me but a shell which had a
message for me as if the ocean has sent
me a message for this shell to tell me
no no start being worried there is hope
can a small shell like this bring hope
to humanity then my mind started to work
out this shell is a cone and cones are
fabulous shells you look at them like
this they look very normal but they like
to eat fresh fish a shell eating fresh
fish yeah they have been on earth since
541 million years and in 541 million
years they have survived five extinction
events and they have developed unique
weapons to fish they have a dart with a
poison and this poison paralyzes live
fish allowing the shell to come slowly
and eat it fresh it doesn’t kill the
fish
it just paralyzes it so that’s a good
meal but then again was the link with
the future of humanity poisons can save
humanity these toxins that I shall
produce are known as kunu toxins cones
Canoe toxins there are around 100,000
Kuna toxins in the world out of which
only 0.1%
have been studied by pharmaceutical
companies and you know what they have
derived a painkiller which is hundred to
two hundred times stronger than morphine
morphine is a painkiller that you get at
the end of your life which affects your
brain and which becomes toxic you get
used to it but this toxin has found the
cure for excruciating pain it has found
the cure for Alzheimer Parkinson
inflammation diseases and so many other
organisms so this shell yes can be the
future of humanity a shell can be the
future of humanity yes walking further I
found a jellyfish on the on the beach
jellyfish stings you shouldn’t touch it
of course but you know that this
jellyfish is immortal it has the secret
of immortality it doesn’t die you know
that jellyfish have appeared on earth
700 million years ago it was the first
multicellular organism which appeared on
earth 700 million years survived fight
extinction events holds the secret for
immortality who in this room holds the
secret for immortality we have big
computers we have brains we all have
scientists but this small jellyfish has
the secret for immortality inspiring
isn’t it and there are lots and lots of
species that we can find around the
world so many areas of the oceans that
haven’t been explored you know that Iran
Mauritius
there are around thousand seamounts
seamount being mountains that drop from
the bottom of the ocean 4000 meters but
haven’t emerged and on all those sea
mounts they are like Oasis with specific
biodiversity which hasn’t even been
discovered more cones more jellyfish
more living organisms more Hope more
hope for the future I think that humans
are very strange creatures sometimes
they need to be really facing a great
danger and being facing a danger before
being able to act and to change and to
innovate to make the brains work and we
are today
at the crossroads we have a choice to
make all of us here in this room all
around the world either we take the road
for fish over-exploitation oil and gas
we start to distribute our oceans we
start aquaculture to destroy coastal
areas we continue to pollute away
plastic and in 2050 I can guarantee you
our oceans will look dark oxygen free
with a few jellyfish and lots of plastic
the other way and which we have to take
is a sustainable future trying to have a
different relation with nature trying to
have a look at the oceans in a different
way it’s not a cash box it’s the future
of humanity you’ve seen with the cone
with the jellyfish
there’s so many marine organisms around
us and the church has already started to
be made because today around the world
many young people are starting to
mobilize I was the first oceanography
emerges today many young people wants to
study oceanography they want to
understand they want to act they protest
against projects which they feel is
affecting their future education is
taking over and this is starting private
companies have also started to see the
benefits that we can get from the ocean
apart from oil and gas
apart from aquaculture apart from
passing of the oceans the common ocean
of humanity people have started like
this pharmaceutical company to be
inspired by cones by jellyfish and by
the sea mounts and I’m organizing an
expedition in the seamount around
Mauritius in the coming months this is
the hope of humanity so we are at
Crossroads ladies and gentlemen we are
at crossroads we have a choice to make
today and I’m sure that when in 2050 be
an old man coming back again in this
Beach why I found this cone when I was
walking looking at a colorful fish that
I’ll be able to say to my children who
are in the room today I have made the
right choice I have acted for my future
and I have made the right choice to
create a better future because our
oceans are our future thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: