Jean-Paul Chanteguet

05 October 2000

“The deep oceans are still largely unknown and remain, in many ways, quite mysterious to us. Because they contain many wonders and various treasures, because France has a particular responsibility to protect them, because deep-sea ecosystems, that are extremely fragile, need a special attention, we must act now and define, together, ambitious policies reconciling sustainable human activities and marine biodiversity, reconciling mankind with this singular ecosystem.
We must seize the opportunity of the reform of the EU Regulation on deep-sea fishing and take advantage of the marine biodiversity round table at the 2013 environmental conference i nFrance to launch the debate on the issues and challenges of human activities in deep waters. It is up to us to think together on the solutions that could preserve this very special environment.”