One day,
a boy who was discovering the sea asked me,
The ocean...
What is the ocean?
But I didn't know how to reply.
What is the sea?
What is the ocean?
How to relate them?
For millions of years,
life has spread over our planet
yet in a very brief period,
a human lifetime,
the balance of nature
that we thought was immutable
has been transformed.
Everything is moving faster.
Man ventures into space and the ocean's depths
seeking other galaxies,
other Milky Ways.
In the infinity of a drop of water,
asteroids,
planets.
Life already pulsates within it.
In the story of the oceans
and the sea's inhabitants,
frantic races,
wild hordes.
During the Age of Exploration,
the sea was boundless,
its resources inexhaustible.
Navigators travelled the oceans,
above a world
whose abundance, diversity and mystery, they never suspected.
In those days,
far from the eyes of men,
animals shared vast territories.
The ocean belonged to them.
Distant shores were reached,
new worlds discovered,
unknown species catalogued...
A page in natural history
had just been turned.
Only the realm of the night
remained unsuspected,
invisible...
Underwater meadows...
Peaceful herbivores...
Almost familiar images
of life on dry land returned to the sea.
Between species,
surprising, necessary relationships...
Fearsomeness can be deceptive.
A predator is often a protector...
and the tiniest creature
indispensable to the biggest.
To conquer new lands,
life seizes every opportunity,
every incident,
every chance...
Thanks to a passing storm,
on flimsy vessels torn from the shore,
unwitting travelers set sail across the oceans
wherever fate takes them.
They will lose their way in this vastness
or maybe, carried by winds and currents,
they will bring life to other shores.
The great migrations follow the rhythm of the seasons.
The sea is a huge, open space
that animals roam at will,
without hindrance, from one continent to another.
Relentlessly,
the ocean wanderers set off for other latitudes.
In the secrecy of the depths,
nature has tried everything,
every colour,
every shape.
Sometimes it gives its creatures
strange, outlandish masks.
Out of necessity,
in order to survive,
animals travel thousands of miles
to reach cold and fertile waters.
A genuine maritime migration.
Extinct...
I have to relate that too.
Extinct species,
vanished for good.
Barely discovered and already wiped out.
Extinct...
A few short steps covering millions of years of evolution
few decades.
How many species have we caused to vanish?
How many are becoming extinct?
How many are under threat?
While our indifference
has led to animals becoming extinct,
the desire to protect them is now greater than ever.
In all latitudes,
men dive to the heart of the oceans,
respecting nature,
to discover,
to understand...
A dream become reality...
Exploring the other side of the mirror...
Myths and legends
give way to the discovery of a fascinating world.
The story of the oceans
has barely begun.
In order to relate it, we must study all species,
even the tiniest, most insignificant ones.
There is still so much to discover.
A weightless universe...
in which gigantic animals
move about with grace
and lightness,
without fearing the presence of man.
Like a reconciliation,
dreaming of harmony is possible.
Sometimes, the sea swallows up ships
but life reasserts itself
and the former wreck becomes a refuge.
During storms at sea,
men are able to work together.
Can't we work together to protect the oceans?
Orbiting satellites
observe our planet.
We have never discovered so much,
never done as much harm as we do now.
Rivers carry pollution down to the sea.
Currents, like the ocean's bloodstream,
spread the poison through the vast expanse.
The traces of human endeavour
defile the shore and the deep.
At the far ends of the earth,
in the white sanctuaries,
animals still live far from men,
as at the dawn of time.
At the other end of the world,
another refuge,
another sanctuary,
another ocean...
The same apparently virgin territory.
Soon,
this world of ice will be open to shipping,
open to trade...
What fate awaits polar wildlife?
No animal will stand up for its own survival.
The cries of the endangered species
will go unheard.
Must we prepare to live in an artificial world
where examples of each species
will be kept in zoos
or giant aquariums?
A sad reflection of past diversity.
Within the known universe,
the Earth alone harbours life.
There is no replacement planet.
The Earth does not belong to us. It has to be shared.
That is where our hope lies.
The diversity of species
is necessary for our own existence.
Everything is still possible.
For millions of years,
nature has been renewing itself...
Wild...
Free...