Other than being actively involved in scientific research, educating the public, and many more, BLOOM also partake widely in media both in print, TV, and on news media. They have been featured mainly in France, where most of their work take place. The below includes videos to the few talks, interviews in 2015 alone, and a list without videos in year 2014 and later.
2015
July 2015 – TED Talk on Solutions against Deep Sea Fisheries by Claire Nouvian
March 2015 – BLOOM’s study on Shark Squalane on French TV (Featuring Claire Nouvian herself)
January 2015– Interview with Claire Nouvian representing BLOOM regarding regulations on deep-sea fishing
2014
November 2014
– Documentary “INTOX : Enquête sur les lobbies de la pêche industrielle”
– Conference of the Magazine Kaizen with Claire Nouvian and Charles Braine
September 2014
– France 2 TV News on Climate March
– Hands Off Our Bottom Campaign with LUSH
July 2014 – Street Artists Stand Up For The Deep Sea
Since setting the vision and field of action, BLOOM has followed closely with what it has set out to achieve.
The picture below shows an overall classication of activities BLOOM has undertaken to achieve its vision. A short summary of each classification will follow.
General Activities by BLOOM
Awareness and Education
BLOOM believes that children are our future – as they are the one who will grow to be consumers as well. Educating the children on the importance of ecosystems is essential. As such, Education is a critical long-term investment.
BLOOM recognises Education’s importance and organises events to enable children to learn about the sea and help them protect it. Such events include:
An educational show about the sea, called “The Shark Squad”
An Art and Science competition, called “2000 Meters Under The Sea”
Teacher trainings, with programs and teaching materials to educate biology teachers about the deep sea
Case study called “Générations Océans” is still running as a program in school
Consumer Protection
BLOOM recognises the relevance of informational asymmetry in consumerism – where consumers are often delivered partial and biased information from the producers. Hence, in order to protect the consumers, BLOOM denounces fraudulent practices and enable consumers to understand the destructive impact of certain fisheries on the marine environment. Such actions include:
Victory in battle suit against Intermarché, a French retail giant
Attempts to eco-launder with dishonest and misleading advertisements were banned
Label was also taken away
Relayed updated guides to sustainable fish consumption
Alternative guides of responsible consumption such as ranking of French food retailers were relayed as well
Certification procedures were examined as well
Legal Action
BLOOM does not hesitate to take up to legal action when compelled to do so.
As listed under Consumer Protection above, BLOOM filed a claim against Intermarché
For covering up its destructive fishing practices with a false layer of “sustainability”
Initiated in court for Intermarché’s fishing fleet, Scapêche, to submit its accounts (since they refused to do so since 2009)
Revealed budget deficits of over 19 million euros
Justified the argument of deep-sea bottom trawling being unsustainable and destructive
Independent Research
BLOOM conducts independent research to gain expertise and critical analysis. This helps to provide alternate and reliable perspectives to other existing and dominating beliefs about fishing as well as lack of transparency surrounding data on public funding. Various studies include:
29 September 2012 – Publication scientifique : S. Villasante et al., Sustainability of deep-sea fish species under the European Union Common Fisheries Policy. Ocean & Coastal Management (2012).
November 2011 – An investigation into the market of deep-sea shark liver oil: The hideous price of beauty
September 2011 – Study on Deep-Sea Fisheries (English): Deep-Sea Fisheries in France: a Historical and Economic Perspective
May 2011 – Deep-Sea Fisheries Report (French): The Ecological and Socio-Economic Profile of Deep-Sea Fisheries
May 2011 – BLOOM’s Study on School Canteens (full manuscript – French): Do our children eat at-risk fish species?
May 2011 – BLOOM’s study on school canteens (summary – English): At-risk fish species served in school canteens
Events
Last but not least, BLOOM remains very active since its beginning in 2005 and organises various events to gather public participation and attention. The below list includes the recent events from 2014 to 2015. (There are still many more events before, and on-going as well.)
October 2015 – Exhibition on Cod Fishing at Marine Museum in Paris
June – October 2015 – Exhibtion “The Deep” arrives in Singapore
January 2015 – Issey Miyake Men Spring/Summer Collection 2015 – with designs inspired from the book “The Deep”
July 2014 – Standing up against UK Fisheries Minister, who supported the derail of ban on deep-sea trawling
Gathering media attention via Twitter, Press release
Even before her commitment to the conservation of the sea, Nouvian was already armed with the knowledge of 6 languages after graduating from Sorbonne University in Paris with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. She also had the experience of travelling for more than 10 years shooting wildlife documentaries for both French and International television and journalism (such as France 2, France 3, The Fifth, Discovery Channel and Science Channel). It is evident that she is naturally (pun intended), one of the best candidates to advocate for the important conservation issues that require more public awareness.
Claire Nouvian’s interest in the deep sea could be traced to a reconnaissance trip for a film at the Monterey Bay Aquarium at United States, in year 2001. She was captivated and dazzled by the unidentified creatures that were filmed at the depth of 4,000 metres. The lack of public documents on the deep sea and discovery of deep-sea fishing pushed Nouvian to launch a collective effort in the conservation of the deep sea. This includes collaboration with renowned researchers worldwide, gathering an extensive bank of never seen before pictures of deep sea creatures, and establishing campaigns in educating the public on the deep sea.
In October 2005, Nouvian was given the opportunity to travel down 1,000 metres onboard the submersible Johnson Sea Link-1 as a correspondent at sea on the Gulf of Maine mission of the Harbour Branch Oceanographic Institution. Her passion was further driven. 2005 was also the year the year where Nouvian founded BLOOM, a nonprofit conservation organisation based in Paris and HongKong. More information on BLOOM association can be found under ‘BLOOM’ tab.
Since then, Nouvian published a book called ‘The Deep’ in ten over languages, printing over 150,000 copies and launched the exhibition of the same name starting from Natural History Museum of Paris, 2006, to 6 other countries. She also published scientific findings and gives lectures on fisheries and sustainable development communication strategies to various universities and organisations in the mean time.
Named ” The Planet’s Guardian Angel” by the Geo magazine in 2007, and “Environmental Women of the Year” in 2012 in the Femmes En Or awards, Claire Nouvian has been recognised several times on a global platform for her passion and efforts in preserving an important part of Earth’s equilibrium. A more specific list of her professional career and her work can be found in the next tab, labelled ‘Achievements and Awards’.
Author’s note: Much of biography on Claire Nouvian made public were focused on her conservation efforts of the ocean. Prior to this commitment, Nouvian only provided brief information on her previous career as well. Her personal life has been kept private otherwise, unlike many famous conservationists. This may not necessarily be a bad thing as it allows media to focus directly on Nouvian’s efforts and threats the ocean is facing – issues which require more attention.
0- 200m: Epipelagic Zone
This zone is usually the most crowded, since it receives most sunlight here.
200 – 1,000m: Mesopelagic Zone
Sunlight is faint, however still visible. Still relatively colonized.
1,000 – 4,000m: Bathypelagic Zone
Sunlight can no longer reach this zone. Temperatures rarely exceed 4 Degree Celsius.
Beneath 4,000m: Abyssopelagic Zone
Other than total reduction of sunlight and heavy water pressure, there is also very limited food resources and life.
To reflect how the Nouvian’s most popular work, the sub-categories under this Tab will follow the same categorization the exhibition had, which is slightly different from the above range of depth, starting from 150m instead. This is so that we dive straight into the deeper parts of the ocean. These categories include:
1. 150m – 600m: Epipelagic Zone to Mesopelagic Zone
2. 600m – 1000m: Mesopelagic Zone
3. Beneath 1000m: Mesopelagic Zone
4. Beneath 4000m: Abyssopelagic Zone
Each subcategory will serve to take you to a brief introduction of the different depths of the Deep sea virtually.
If you’re ready to start viewing the different zones, click HERE. ☺
Following Nouvian’s belief, after environment education, there should be recognition of existing problems and actions we may take as a consumer. Hence, listed below are the few threats Nouvian has decided to raise in The Deep Exhibition.
Deep sea Trawling/ Bottom Trawling
Image source: Charitysource
The Deep sea is disturbed and destroyed when destructive fishing occurs at this level. Massive nets called bottom trawls are dragged at up to 2000m down the sea to catch sea. However, the catch is that the bottom is bulldozed as a result of the trawl nets, which are equipped with 5-tonne panels and heavy rollers. While such method is very productive and brings about huge haul (along with many unwanted sea creatures), it leaves a virtual desert in its wake.
The consequences are dire. Victims of this practice are the cold water coral reefs, also known as deep reefs; and the deep sea creatures.
Deep sea reefs are critical to the ecosystem of the deep sea. Individual deep-sea corals can take hundreds of years to grow, and the reefs themselves may be up to 10,000 years old. They act as critical fish nurseries, supporting corals, sponges, and a dizzying array of other animals, some of which are still unknown to science too. Trawling destroys these deepwater reefs before scientists can discover and study them. It only takes one pass of a bottom trawl to reduce all these to rubble.
Orange roughies in a bottom trawl net. Image source: FIS
Deep sea fishes such as the orange roughies are very vulnerable to any kind of fishing, as they reproduce late and live very long. The orange roughies only reach sexual maturity at the age of 25 and can live up to 160 years! They become easy targets for the fishermen to spot when they form huge schools during breeding. Thus, in an given area, the fishermen are able to fish out an entire population, and can potentially drive it to “commercial” extinction in less than 10 years. This cycle repeats when the fishes in one area is gone and the fishermen move on to another area.
Overfishing Overfishing occurs when fishes are taken out of the ocean faster than they can replace themselves.
Image source: WWF
For a long time, fishermen were so successful that it seemed like the ocean’s supply of fish was inexhaustible. We made use of advancement in technologies to increase catch. Military developments such as satellite positioning, sonar and radar are now commonly used along with long-range ships to increase catches. To make up for decreasing catches per boat, fishing fleets have become bigger and more advanced. Such have led to overfishing. Despite such alarming signs of problems, most countries actually subsidize fishing activities.
Overfishing is hard to control as well, as it is difficult to end or significantly limit without severe backlash from people who have invested heavily in fishing boats and depended on the activity for a living. Hence, policymakers often avoid making the difficult, but necessary changes.
Overfishing is also hard to control as fishes are very mobile. Even if they are protected in one country’s waters, they may still be caught somewhere else too. Destructive fishing activities, especially bottom trawling, take place in areas outside the jurisdiction of any country. The “Tragedy of The Commons” by Hardins applies to this situation, where common goods that are not under regulations are selfishly exploited by independent individuals.
The vulnerable ones Deep sea fishes and sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing. This is because these sea animals tend to grow very slowly and take many years in order to reach maturity. Sharks face an additional problem – where it will only have a few offspring in its lifetime. In just 10 years of fishing a local shark population can drive them to near extinction. However for the population to recover, it would take 100 years instead. This estimate is based on the assumption that the shark population is left alone to recover, but this is never the case in reality.
Image source: Shaaark
The only reason why sharks are disappearing is because we eat them. Humans kill about 300,000 sharks everyday, and an estimated of 100million sharks have been killed till date. Sharks are important to the balance of the food chain in the sea. When too many predators like sharks are removed, the populations of the fishes they used to eat get bigger, but only for a while. An imbalanced ocean can cause these fish populations to get so big that there is not enough food to support them, leading to a crash in populations. If we keep eating and killing sharks unsustainably, this can lead to further imbalance of the ocean, which can further result in crash of species of fishes we consume as well.
Overall, everything on Earth is interconnected, even though the deep sea may seem very distant and remote to have any impact on human population, and vice versa. Author’s note: In The Deep exhibition, Claire Nouvian only subtly points that it is unnecessary to overfish sharks and eat them unsustainably. However, it is interesting to note that Nouvian does not directly state what we should do or not do in a definite way. Instead, she further educates on the impact of our actions and show us the evaluation of our actions through the exhibition.
Dedicated to the protection of the deep sea and marine diversity, BLOOM operates very differently from other associations. As a non-profit organisation, its actions favour independent research, educational and popularisation approaches regarding environmental issues. Founded by Claire Nouvian, this informational and educational approach matches her fundamental expectations, her rigour and passion. Overall, this organisation targets both political and economic decision makers, as well as the general public.
BLOOM’s Vision
To reverse the course of environmental and human tragedy, BLOOM aims to restore our ocean ecosystem to its full biological capacity, such that in the future, there is still food and people can still retain their jobs at sea.
In order to be efficient, they have chosen to narrow down their focus on 3 aspects:
Preserving the Deep sea, which is the last intact marine environment
To fight the indifference towards extinction of sharks so as to protect endangered species
Improve public subsidies to the fishing sector in order to ensure survival of the fisherman
Field of action
In order to achieve the above 3, their actions will be taken with the below 4 strategies in mind. These 4 strategies are interdependent on each other in order to enhance chances of success, transparency and effectiveness.
Changing policy and private/industrial practices in response to ecological and socio-economic urgency
Changing consumer habits
Educating the public, children and future decision-makers
The Abyssopelagic zone is the 4th layer of the ocean, and refers to waters 4000m to 6000m deep.
The title, “Abyssal Plain” refers to sediment-covered ocean floors which can be found at 3000m to 6000m deep. They cover more than 50% of the Earth’s surface and are made up of mid-ocean ridges, island arcs, ocean trenches, and the rest of the plains occasionally punctured by seamounts. The ocean floor can be said to be the final receptacle of all food that filters down the water column. However, only 0.5% – 2% of the organic matters reaches this zone, as the organic flux depends on the production in the upper oceanic zones.
Difficult to collect information
Historically, it has been difficult to collect information at this zone due to its sheer vastness and remoteness of the abyss. However, recent expeditions found that high biodiversity are still present. (i.e. up to 2000 species of bacteria, 250 species of protozoans, and 500 species of invertebrates.
Picture taken at “The Deep” Exhibition.
The sea spider which can grow up to 30cm: paces slowly along the ocean floor in search of sponges, coral or anemones to feed on.
Picture taken at “The Deep” exhibition
The Deep-sea Lizardfish can be found on abyssal plains up to 4500m deep. While it is badly adapted for swimming, it waits for its prey while raising its head, like how a lizard would.
The waters from 1000m to 4000m deep is categorised as Bathypelagic Zone.
Source: DevianArt
In this zone, temperatures here no longer exceed 4° Celsius. It is impossible to detect any light, and food sources have been drastically reduced too. The easiest food to obtain would be the crumbs falling from the shallower waters; however majority of them would have already been eaten by the many organisms residing in the first kilometre. It would be impractical to swim up to obtain more food as it is too far away from the shallower waters too.
How do marine creatures at this zone survive then?
In order to adapt to this hostile environment, some of the animals here are static creatures with slow metabolisms. Rather than using force or speed, they resort to tricks to find their meals. Others have adapted by exhibiting unique body characteristics, such as gigantic jaws, and highly elastic stomach which can accommodate a prey larger than itself.
Picture taken at “The Deep” exhibitionPicture taken at “The Deep” exhibition
Overall, animals living at this seemingly inhospitable zone have adapted extraordinarily.
This post will account for the remaining half of the mesopelagic zone, from 600m to 1000m deep.
Colours
Underneath this tremendous volume, Nouvian demonstrates that there are “invisible frontiers” that divides this midwater zone. Each frontier is influenced by various factors, such as:
Light levels
Temperature
Salinity
Pressure and oxygen concentration
However, what is interesting is that animals with pigmented skin can be observed in this range, contrary to some of people’s expectation that the deeper the sea, the duller the animals’ colour would be. The colours range from bright red to dark brown.
Since most animals at these depths are bioluminescent, such pigments will serve to absorb the blue-green bioluminescence most animals create, thus allowing the predator to hide any biolumniscent sparks their prey may have emitted in their stomachs.
Picture taken at “The Deep” exhibitionPicture taken at “The Deep” exhbition
Since the colour, red, is the first wavelength to disappear into the water, it is unlikely for a marine animal’s predator to detect it as it will appear to be camouflaged by a “black cape”. Overall, in deeper and darker waters, having pigmented skin could be an advantage instead of a weakness (where predators are attracted to the prey’s coloured appearance).
