As part of the Monaco Ocean Week, which takes place in Monaco from 30th March to 4th April, the Y.C.M. welcomed around sixty guests on Thursday 30th March for its environmental symposium La Belle Classe Superyachts, organised in the form of a dinner debate on the theme of “The Ocean: sizes and servitudes”.

A number of major players in the great family of the sea were present around the Secretary General of the Y.C.M. Bernard d’Alessandri and H.E.M. Bernard Fautrier, Vice-President of the Prince Albert II Foundation.

For nearly three hours, specialists in the marine environment – and in particular professionals from the Great Yachting industry – answered the many questions of an audience unanimously concerned by the future of our oceans and indeed, by the very future of mankind. In turn, subjects as varied as the runaway climate machine, the acidification of the oceans, new, less polluting propulsion systems and responsible fishing were addressed in an extremely rich exchange of information.

The ecological evolution of anchorages and moorings, too often responsible for the destruction of Posidonia meadows, was also discussed. Developed by a Monegasque company, these buoys of a new type intended for large yachts, could represent an unavoidable economic windfall in the future. “It is therefore essential to support these projects,” believes Laurent Certaldi, Director of Catalano Shipping and member of the “Yachting Monaco” Cluster, who initiated this concept.

Ship owners, naval architects, researchers and scientists, and managers of eco-responsible associations have thus defined a moral and necessary attitude to avoid an acceleration of climate change which, in the long term, would lead to a major ecological disaster of world order. This is how we discovered the efforts made by amateurs. They were illustrated by the intervention of Mr. François Fiat, ambassador of La Belle Classe Superyacht and owner of the M/Y Yersin, who concretized and further enhanced the purpose.

 

It was the naval architects and in particular the designer Espen Oeino, vice-president of the “Yachting Monaco” Cluster, who, in a very detailed speech, presented the technological innovations in terms of propulsion. This is a field in which clean energy is increasingly being used as a complement to traditional fossil fuel propulsion systems. Everyone recognises that wind and sun are and will be in the future indispensable complements for a responsible approach to the seas and oceans. For example, the M/Y Black Pearl project (106 metres) will very soon be aiming to cross the Atlantic with just 20 litres of fuel. For his part, Mr Fiat stressed that the M/Y Yersin was close to zero fine particle emissions. Other innovations such as the double cooling hulls used for on-board air conditioning and ballasting with recycled water have attracted the attention and approval of an extremely attentive audience.

CNRS researchers, scientists from the Prince Albert II Foundation and managers of marine protected areas have appreciated these technical data, which confirm their convictions. More work is needed to reduce ocean acidification and to halt global warming, which is everyone’s responsibility.

In the words of Dr Jean-Pierre Gattuso of the Villefranche scientific laboratory, “the Ocean is the thermostat of our planet and too much disruption would ultimately have dramatic consequences for the human species”.  Monaco and H.S.H. Prince Albert II were given a heartfelt acknowledgement for the fight they have been waging for many years and which is now taking concrete form in the Principality through the ban on the marketing of bluefin tuna and the ban on plastic bags, the disposal of which at sea is one of the main sources of pollution and poisoning of marine fauna. A phenomenon on such a scale that today we speak of the “sixth continent” to evoke the concentrations of micro-particles in certain oceanic areas of the planet.

Finally, and to accompany the prestigious dinner, prepared from seafood by chef Christian Plumail, all participants discovered the responsible identity of “Mr. Goodfish”. This international association, which is very active in Monaco, creates a link between all those involved in fishing and from the sea to the table. A chain of solidarity linking fishermen, wholesalers, distributors, restaurateurs and consumers, with a slogan accessible to all: “Fishing well today to have fish tomorrow”.

At the end of this evening of exceptional density, a note of optimism remains. It was summed up by the Secretary General of the Y.C.M. Bernard d’Alessandri: “nothing is irreversible but everything must be done now so that it does not become irreversible”.