The marine protected area of Port-Cros, a too small jewel of biodiversity: an interview on France Info with Charles-François Boudouresque, professor emeritus at the MIO and member of the scientific council of the Port-Cros National Park

At the close of the One Ocean Summit, this Friday, February 11 in Brest, Emmanuel Macron announced the extension of the French Southern Territories nature reserve, which will become the second largest marine protected area in the world.

In France, the first marine protected area was created in 1963 in the Port-Cros National Park in the Var. It takes about half an hour to reach Port-Cros Island from the port of Le Lavandou. Eric, an electrician, works on the island. As an amateur fisherman, he confirms that the benefits of the marine protected area can be seen with the naked eye: "You have big sea bream, big sars, wolves... In other ports, you see small ones, but not big ones."

A "life-size aquarium"

The fish are indeed more numerous, their size is also more important. To realize this, you have to go underwater. "In some areas, divers have the impression of being in a sort of life-size aquarium," explains Charles-François Boudouresque, professor of oceanography and member of the scientific council of Port-Cros National Park. This is what he calls the "reserve effect": "It can obviously be the reappearance of species that have disappeared elsewhere, of rare species. This was the case of the grouper, which had practically disappeared in Port-Cros and which has reappeared.

"There is also an export aspect. We have a kind of machine to produce eggs, to produce larvae. With the currents, all of this is carried to the outside areas and therefore contributes to repopulation well beyond the limits of the marine protected area."

Charles-François Boudouresque, professor of oceanography

A restricted fishing zone that is too small

Port-Cros is therefore a small jewel of biodiversity, but the areas where all forms of fishing are prohibited represent a tiny part. Alexandre Meinesz, professor emeritus of marine biology at the University of Côte d'Azur, deplores this: "A true marine reserve that protects all biodiversity is where the main factor of destabilization of ecosystems is prohibited, that is to say fishing. However, when we combine the no-take zones of all the French coasts of the Mediterranean, we see that it represents 0.6% of the territory, so almost nothing is protected."

To achieve the objective that France has set, namely 10% of strong protection of territorial waters for 2030, it will therefore be necessary to redouble efforts, to put resources to strengthen patrols in particular, and to make fishermen accept these new bans.

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