Jacques Perrin

19 October 2000

“They look awful with their huge eyes and monstrous mouths but Men are the only ones to judge the beauty or ugliness of a being. Animals, themselves, accept others, all others, with their differences. Recently revealed, we know so little of deep-sea fish, the methuselas of the ocean; the darkness of the Abyss hides many colors, life forms, behaviors and surprising connections. We have barely begun to explore the ocean’s surface and we already scrape the ocean floor. Deep-sea trawling is an ephemeral fishery doomed to disappear very soon, a wildfire that benefits only a handful of already wealthy shareholders. We exterminate them in silence until the last one. Our children will not marvel over these unexpected treasures if we leave behind a frighteningly empty and sterile ocean…”