Ocean that changes, interview with biologist Marina Nadia Repetto

THEthe theme of the Genoese edition of Book Pridefrom 3 to 5 October at the Palazzo Ducale of Genoa, And Dance on the brink of the world. With his book, the Biologist Marina Nadia Repetto dance on the brink of the ocean. Ocean that changes, published by Magenes is a journey between science and personal anecdotes, research and direct testimonies on the drama of the Mediterranean, marked by pollution, fishing and climate change. Very worried but (by its nature) not resigned, Repetto also guides us to understand how to read the news. “For example, are the sea turtles that lay eggs in Riccione really good news?”

Nadia Repetto tells the “Ocean who changes”

The book is full of scenes of lived life, in waxing and blocnotes, on fishing boats at work in the Gulf of Genoa. “In aNNI 80 and we were only two women in this sector, and we were considered research laborers. I spent A life on the field And it is in this spirit that I tried to write, telling Not only the surface but the whole volume – full of life – of the ocean: that huge mass of water that circulates and covers 70% of the terrestrial globe. So much so that we could well call him planet sea, and not planet land ».

Plastic ducks, from the Pacific of North to South America

An example that help us to make the idea? «In the book I make one that seems useful to me. In 1992, during a strong storm in the Pacific Ocean of the North, A container ship full of plastic toys lost its load of 28,899 between the yellow ducksred beaver and green frogs. Some of them continued to float in the circle. Most remained trapped in the ice north of Alaska, some circumnavigato the globe and appeared in the Atlantic Ocean. In 2003 they were found north of Scotland, in January 2017 beached in Languo, in the North Sea, along the coast of the Archipelago of the Oriental Frisian, in Germany. Other toys have crossed the Pacific Ocean and have been recovered along the coasts of South America. Other ducks are still wandering the sea. This shows how lin the mass of water of the sea it circulates, and is never stopped, and how it is a single system».

Between protected marine areas and oil tankers

Then the protected sea areas … «Among the solutions we have to protect biodiversity is to create protected marine areas, already. Are of the Small enclave where you can’t do some things, and instead everything around you can do everything. In Bergeggi it is like this: delicious place, full of biodiversity. But a few kilometers there is a port where the petrol ships arrive, the port of Vado. Now it seems that the thing is averted, but they also wanted to get a Gasiera ship. Piero Angela also exhibited: we risk a tsunami, He explained. We are in an era in which each choice is traced back to the possible economic exploitation. The history of sea turtles is the same ».

Sea turtles and alien species, as the Mediterranean is changing

It refers to the Caretta Caretta who in recent years have been laying in quantity on our coasts, even in northern Italy. “Are there turtles? Very well, and then The Municipality organizes the trips, even a tourist flow is created to see the hatching. But, poor, the turtle of the area where I live, who is between Varazze and Cogoleto, he shot I don’t know how much to find a free beach where to lay, because now all Our beaches are occupied. You can’t take advantage of everything economically, you have to make choices.

And, above all, in front of this phenomenon, quite rare, how scientists must ask us: why do these animals come here? What is going on? Once they return to the sea, what kind of environment will they find? As well as all the species that we call today: once they entered the Mediterranean but then they did not find the suitable environment to survive. Today not, they are invaders, even heavy, who reassemble the fishing. I think it is important to stimulate young people to read beyond the news itself, to take a position. Otherwise we are all As in that film with Leonardo DiCaprio, Don’t Look Up: we can avoid looking up, we can deny the climatic crisis As Trump does, but it is a fact that we are going beyond the point of no return to the climate, and we do not realize it. We fill our mouths of words such as sustainability, from the deodorant bag, it is all sustainable. But let’s try to push us beyond the showcase, only in this way will we find solutions ».

Useful solutions to protect the sea

What are the really useful solutions? “I think politics must listen to science and move accordingly, legislating to guarantee the sea a future. The laws on the sea today concern practically only maritime traffic. There is a law for the defense of deep areas, totally inapplicated. But she knows that still today If a fisherman is fishing, and collects garbage, he has to ribotte it at seaotherwise it is reported for pollution? For 30 years I have seen them collect plastic, woods, even ceramic toilets and ribotta them in the sea. In 2020 a law saves that would put a embankment to this situation was proposed, but it is firm, and the garbage continues to stay there ».

The consequences are also on human life. «I would like to give a small example and far from us. Many years ago we were in Senegal: at the market, on the beach, the pyrogies full of fish arrived, beautiful women with changing clothes were waiting for. It was a moment of sharing, a show. Today local fishing on the Coasts of Senegal is disappearing because Europe has given fishing concessions to European ships to fish in the areas off. Let’s say: oh well, the coast is far away. But no. You cannot think of your piece of the world without looking up, the risk is great ».