“Our oceans can’t wait any longer.” The sentence is signed by President Emmanuel Macron who announced at the end of the One Ocean Summit held in February Brest “historic decisions” to better protect the oceans and put an end to the overexploitation of marine resources. Four months later, it’s not too much of a party in the French oceanographic research community. Because in the meantime, Russia has invaded Ukraine, causing fuel prices to soar. As a result, the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) is forced to reduce the sail area due to the increase in the operating costs of its ships.
Scheduled for the end of the year in the West Indies aboard theAtalanta, the Diadem mission will therefore not take place this year due to a lack of financial means. “It is postponed, at best, to 2023”, underlines Olivier Lefort, director of the French oceanographic fleet which has been operated for four years by Ifremer, based in Brest. If this offshore mission is still on the agenda, five other coastal campaigns will not have this chance, because they have been purely canceled. “In the current context, we have to do less with a constant budget,” he says. So we tried to find the least bad solution to balance our budget”.
Nearly 170 missions carried out each year
In a press release, the freshly re-elected Brest deputy Jean-Charles Larsonneur (Horizons) expressed alarm at the situation. “This is unacceptable for French science and oceanography, at a time when we need it most: climate issues, biodiversity and management of fisheries resources. The resources allocated to French oceanographic missions are a constant concern”, he underlines. If he concedes that canceling a mission is “always a difficult decision”, Olivier Lefort does not want to be alarmist either. “These canceled or postponed missions represent only a very small percentage of our missions,” he says.
Over 70 meters long, Ifremer’s four ocean-going vessels, including the Atalante and the Thalassa, carry out some forty missions on all oceans each year, including around fifteen scientific cruises. Smaller (between 25 and 35 meters), the six coastal vessels operate at a rate of around 130 missions per year. “To say that France no longer has the means to send its ships on a mission therefore seems to me a bit exaggerated”, he assures, reacting to an article published in the Telegram.
The renewal of the fleet not before ten years
In the maritime world, this surge in fuel prices has nevertheless served as a trigger to initiate reflection on the energy transition. “There aren’t many solutions yet, but it will accelerate very quickly,” assures Olivier Lefort. For Ifremer, this involves renewing the fleet with less fuel-efficient and less polluting vessels. But this will not happen immediately. “Our ships still have ten years ahead of them,” he says.
In the meantime, discussions have just begun with the ministries supervising Ifremer to find short and medium-term solutions to deal with this surge in the price of diesel.