Un livre, un film, une initiative qui a changé votre regard sur l océan ? Je reste fascinée par Jacques-Yves Cousteau et par les images de ses incroyables expéditions. Deepsea Challenge, le film autour de l expédition de James Cameron dans la fosse des Mariannes, me passionne aussi : c est une expédition sur la vie, qui nous dit qu il y a encore une infinité de choses à comprendre.

Une actualité à propos des océans qui vous donne de l espoir ? Nous avons tous un rôle à jouer : il faut s assurer de ne pas faire aux océans ce que nous avons fait aux forêts. Je vois de plus en plus d acteurs en prendre conscience, comme récemment la Maison-Blanche qui a lancé un programme dédié à la protection de l océan et des écosystèmes marins.

Une prédiction : à quoi ressemblera l océan dans vingt ans ? Ce sera un autre monde. Un environnement connecté, plus simple à explorer, dont nous connaîtrons chaque recoin.

A book, a film or a person who changed your perception of the oceans? I am still fascinated by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the images of his unbelievable expeditions. I am also passionately interested in Deepsea Challenge, the film about James Cameron s expedition in the Mariana Trench. It is an expedition about life, that tells us we still have an infinite number of things to learn.

Some recent news about the oceans that gave you hope? We all have a role to play. We must make sure that we do not do the same thing to our oceans as we did to our forests. I have noticed how more and more players are becoming aware of this, like the White House, which has launched a programme dedicated to protecting the oceans and marine ecosystems.

A prediction: what will the oceans look like in 20 years? It will be another world. A connected environment that will be easier to explore and where we will know about every nook and cranny.

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How can this type of technology help to protect ocean resources?

They have numerous applications. Some of them can even offer customers a new means of protecting the ocean. I am not only thinking of mapping the ocean floor or coral reefs. They can also detect illegal fishing, environmentally monitor the ecosystem for all types of operations at sea, supervise rescue operations in the event of an environmental incident, etc. Our problem consists of finding new ways of monitoring the oceans, as well as a way to introduce these technologies into the ocean without harming its ecosystem. In the future, oceans will be more connected, so this is a crucial question.

1-AUV: Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, a robot that moves autonomously.

To achieve this, we need systems that are flexible, can easily move around in water and cover huge distances. The existing robots, and AUVs1 in particular, are very expensive to produce, maintain and operate. So they are not really suited to monitoring very large areas. Which is where the idea of using drones that are autonomous and collaborative came from. Autonomous, because they are capable of taking initiatives in situ, without being remotely controlled during the operations, and collaborative, because they operate in swarms or fleets and communicate with one another, allowing for monitoring on a larger scale and at a lower cost.

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