Video game industry faces its #metoo moment

Issued on: 14/07/2020 - 15:18Modified: 14/07/2020 - 15:17

Just Dance is one title by Ubisoft, which just shed a number of senior executives after sexual harassment allegations Robyn Beck AFP

Paris (AFP)

After years of simmering controversy over sexism in the video game industry, change may be on its way after outrage came to a boil with a C-suite massacre at Ubisoft.

Following online allegations of sexual misconduct, the publisher of Assassin's Creed and Far Cry launched a probe, resulting in the departure over the weekend of the company's chief creative officer.

The head of human resources also left, as did the chief of operations in Canada where the game maker has its biggest studios.


CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot acknowledged that "Ubisoft has fallen short in its obligation to guarantee a safe and inclusive workplace environment for its employees".

The executive ousters were a high-profile victory for the #metoo movement in the male-dominated video game publishing industry that has a reputation for hostility towards women.

Accusations on social media of sexual harassment and abuse have targeted a number of video game publishers, as well as people in the gaming community around the Twitch platform.

In 2014, two prominent women developers became the targets of an online harassment campaign known as gamergate and seen by many as a backlash to growing pressure about sexism.

- 'Toxic' -

Women Ubisoft employees described as "toxic" the work culture at the company, particularly at its Canadian studios.

One woman who asked for her name not be used told AFP that "working on Far Cry cost me two burnouts, psychological and sexual harassment and humiliation, and human resources never bothered to listen to me".

One employee said on social media that shortly after arriving at Ubisoft a team leader told her she was hired because she was "cute" but that "to everyone's surprise you do your job well".

She discovered a mailing list where men describe what women are wearing "so guys can go take a look".

She then received comments about her looks, unwelcome invitations from superiors and was "regularly pinched on the butt and breast" while using a passageway between buildings.

A former employee said "at Ubisoft people who do bad things are unfortunately protected. They are often highly-placed and if you go to human resources or to managers they usually do nothing."

Another put the blame on the "work hard, play hard" culture inside the company.

"That is where one creates a climate that is not safe, where inhibitions are lowered and people engage in predatory behaviour."

- Lara's transformation -

On Ubisoft's creative teams only one in five employees are women.

Isabelle Collet, a French researcher who has long studied the issue in the IT industry overall, said "getting more women requires a willingness to better welcome them".

Collet said "video game publishers today are real companies that should have real tools against harassment".

But she added that the sector was "not necessarily worse" than medicine or journalism.

Fanny Lignon, a researcher at France's CNRS research institute said: "What is annoying is that sexism can be more common in other types of media without one necessarily realising it".

There has been some change in the representation of women in the games themselves.

In the successful Lara Croft game, the heroine morphed from excessively voluptuous and scantily-clad to a more normal body covered by clothes appropriate for her adventures.

"Many games are now without stereotypes, but some still engage in them extensively, and that usually includes a hypersexualistion of bodies," said Lignon.

"Women are slender and well proportioned, men have more varied builds but most are young and athletic. We end up with a vision that is similar to that presented by other media, like advertising for example," she added.

On the other hand, Lignon pointed to Ubisoft's 2018 Assassin's Creed Odyssey for offering users choices of women characters with real bodies of warriors.

"We're seeing more women characters emerge that are a bit 'badass'," she said.

But a brawny Abby in the game The Last of Us Part 2 released in June has kicked up a storm of comments about her "unrealistic" body for a woman -- illustrating that some gamer stereotypes remain well-entrenched.

burs-rl/jh

Tintin and the mystery of the duelling mummies



Issued on: 14/07/2020 - 15:18

Royal museum curator Serge Lemaitre criticised Herge for attending a 1979 exhibit that displayed the rival mummy JOHN THYS AFP

Brussels (AFP)

The mummified corpse of Rascar Capac thrilled and terrified generations of young fans of the Tintin comic book story "The Seven Crystal Balls".

Now, Herge's fictional Inca has sparked a row between rival Belgian tourist attractions, each of which displays a mummy they say inspired Tintin's creator.

The very serious Art and History Museum is in Brussels' Jubilee Park, near where Herge used to live, and he was known to frequent its collections.

The museum's Andean mummy, squatting upright with knees bent, appears similar to the haunting effigy in the author's illustrated tale of the be-quiffed reporter Tintin's adventure.

Curators thought they had established the link beyond doubt 10 years ago, but the Pairi Daiza safari park in southern Belgium is touting a rival mummy.

Last week, the popular zoo began marketing an exhibit of the "authentic mummy nicknamed Rascar Capac".

The royal museum is not taking this well, and has all but accused the zoo park of false advertising.

"We don't attract visitors by promising them pandas," sniffed museum director general Alexandra de Poorter.

The zoo has expressed regret over an "argument started by the royal museums" but admits that "no one can say for sure which mummy inspired Herge."

If there is confusion, it dates back until at least 1979, when the 2,000-year-old preserved corpse now on display at the zoo appeared in Brussels at an exhibit titled "Tintin's museum of the imagination".

The collection was assembled to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1929 release of the boy reporter's first book-length adventure, "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets".

Author and illustrator Georges Remi -- better known under his pen name Herge -- attended the show, adding some credibility to the mummy's significance.

But this, according to the Art and History Museum's curator of Latin American relics, Serge Lemaitre, was a mistake.

The mummy in question had been bought by a Belgian collector in the 1960s, long after Herge published the "Seven Crystal Balls" book in 1948.

- French connection? -

"And in the first frames serialised in 1941 in the newspaper Le Soir, Rascar Capac was hairless and had very bent knees, just like our mummy," Lemaitre says.

Herge lived near the Jubilee Park -- still a popular spot in Brussels' European quarter -- and knew the museum and its curator Jean Capart well.

Capart even seems to have been fictionalised as Professeur Bergamotte -- or Professor Hercules Tarragon in the English-language version of "The Seven Crystal Balls".

Not only that, but items drawn from other pieces in the museum's ethnographic collections have appeared in the Tintin tales, notably a Peruvian figurine that inspired its eponymous twin in "The Broken Ear".

The museum is thus confident in its claim, but -- as is often the case in a Tintin mystery -- the plot may have a further twist, according to independent expert Philippe Goddin.

"We should stop arguing. Herge looked at lots of Inca mummies, but his first sketches of Rascar Capac are essentially based on a drawing in the Larousse dictionary," he said.

This is an explanation that will not suit anyone in Belgium, where tourist attractions have seized upon any Tintin link to exploit as a key draw.

The drawing in the Larousse was based on a mummy brought back from Peru by the 19th-century French explorer Charles Wiener and is today in the Quai Branly Museum ... in Paris.

© 2020 AFP

Anguish and anger in Serbia as virus returns with a vengeance



Issued on: 14/07/2020 - 

Petar Djuric has become a symbol of anger at the Serbian government's virus response after his father succumbed to the disease Oliver BUNIC AFP

Belgrade (AFP)

When Petar Djuric arrived with fruit and water for his father at the hospital in April, he learned it was too late. For this loss, he blames the collapse of Serbia's health system just as much as the coronavirus.

"Pops, this is for you," the bleary-eyed 31-year-old told a local TV channel as he joined protests that erupted last week over the Serbian government's handling of the health crisis.

The words became a rallying cry for those outraged at leaders accused of toying with the health of citizens for political purposes.

ADVERTISING


After flattening its first curve of infections by May, Serbia is now reporting its deadliest days yet.

Hospitals are overstretched with more than 300 new cases reported daily, putting a record number of around 170 patients on ventilators.

Djuric, a basketball coach, became a symbol of anger among protesters who accuse the government of lifting an initial lockdown prematurely in order to hold an election that tightened the ruling party's grip on power.

After his father came down with a high fever and cough in late March, "we called the COVID-19 call centre every day. They told us to wait, not to come to the hospital," Djuric, who finally drove his father to the hospital himself, told AFP.

On April 9, a doctor recommended the 71-year-old painter be transferred to a ward for respiratory assistance, according to his son.

But in the hospital in Zemun, a neighbourhood of the capital Belgrade, "no ventilator was available at the time," Djuric said.

A few days later, his father was gone.

"I think the doctors did their best. But apparently the system does not work. My father told me the situation was catastrophic," he added.

President Aleksandar Vucic -- the target of protesters' anger -- responded to Djuric in a nationally televised address, calling the story a "lie", while pro-government tabloids launched their own attacks.

- 'Manipulated data' -

Officially, nearly 420 people have died in the country of seven million.

But protesters accuse the authorities of covering up the true death toll, an allegation first levied by a local investigative outlet.

Members of a government crisis team recently admitted that the actual death count is "almost certainly" higher because some patients who died "didn't get the chance to be tested".

Stana, a 50-year-old Belgrade native who declined to give her surname, told AFP she is convinced her father-in-law falls in that category.

She believes he died of the respiratory disease but was not counted in the official COVID-19 figures because he could not be tested in time.

Experiences like this helped fuel the frustration of protests that started on July 7, several of which ended in violent clashes with police.

"We are fed up with the manipulation of COVID-19 figures," Danijela Ognjenovic, a 52-year-old protester, told AFP.

"No one trusts any information coming from the government at this point," added Branko Jovanovic, 44.

- 'Danger was denied' -

President Vucic claims the country has "a health system that is better than that of nine European Union countries".

But some frontline doctors disagree.

While Serbia's medical care was once highly respected -- a legacy of the socialist Yugoslav era -- the health system has been deteriorating for decades.

Like other sectors, the medical industry has suffered from a huge exodus of young professionals moving abroad for better pay in places like Germany.

A nurse earns on average 400 euros ($455) a month in Serbia, while a specialist doctor can make just over 800 euros, according to data from doctors' unions.

The country now lacks some 3,500 doctors and 8,000 nurses, according to the economic news portal novaekonomija.rs.

A doctor working in one of Belgrade's dedicated COVID-19 wards told AFP he believed initial health measures were dropped too early, allowing President Vucic to campaign on a victory against the virus ahead of the June 21 parliamentary elections that cemented his party's domination.

"Until the last moment, the existence of danger was denied, even when it was obvious," he told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

"There was no preparation" before the second wave, in order to "create the image of a system (that) works," he said.

"The situation was bad two weeks ago, now it's even worse."

© 2020 AFP

Humanity on Mars? Technically possible, but no voyage on horizon
Issued on: 14/07/2020 -

A member of the AMADEE-18 Mars simulation mission wearing a spacesuit standing in the doorway of a simulation habitat, with a view of the night sky above in Oman's Dhofar desert, in February 2018 KARIM SAHIB AFP/File

Washington (AFP)

Robotic landers and rovers have been touching down on Mars since the 1970s, but when will humanity finally set foot on the Red Planet?

Experts believe the technical challenges are nearly resolved, but political considerations make the future of any crewed mission uncertain.

NASA's human lunar exploration program, Artemis, envisions sending people back to the Moon by 2024 and using the experience gained there to prepare for Mars.

Plans have been proposed for a crewed exploratory mission of our neighboring planet since before NASA was created in 1958, but have never taken off.

In the spring of 1990, then president George Bush Sr announced the most audacious promise to date -- a man on Mars before July 20, 2019, the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing.

The commitment clearly never came to pass, and similar goals articulated by presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump have not led to concrete programs.

"I have seen maybe 10,000 graphs, charts, proposing various ideas about how to get to Mars, for humans," G. Scott Hubbard, an adjunct professor at Stanford and former senior NASA official, told AFP.

"But putting the money behind it to make it a reality has not occurred."

The mission itself would last two or three years.

Today, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are building heavy rockets capable of sending tens of tons toward Mars.

- Alone, and far -

For the seven-month journey, twenty years of living and working in the International Space Station (ISS) has reassured scientists about the dangers posed by radiation and by weightlessness, such as muscle atrophy.

The body does not emerge unscathed, but the risks are deemed acceptable.

Then there is the stay on Mars itself, which would last 15 months so that the planets are once more on the same side of the Sun.

The surface temperature will average -63 degrees Celsius, and though radiation is a factor, suits and shelters exist that would shield astronauts.

In case of medical emergencies, distance would make an evacuation impossible.

What mishaps should astronauts anticipate?

First of all fractures, but plaster casts would often suffice, says Dan Buckland, an engineer and emergency room doctor at Duke University, who is developing a robotic intravenous needle with support from NASA.

Diarrhoea, kidney stones and appendicitis are generally treatable, except for 30 percent of appendicitis cases which must be operated and could therefore be fatal.

With extensive screening of astronauts' genetics and family history, you can greatly reduce the probability of having a crew member who develops cancer over the course of a three-year mission.

"I have not found a showstopper for going to Mars, in terms of a health condition," said Buckland.

One major issue would be protecting the habitats and vehicles from the ravages of the fine dust that covers the surface.

"Mars is unique in that there's also a concern about dust storms," said Robert Howard of the NASA Johnson Center.

These hellish planet-wide tempests can block out the Sun for months, rendering solar panels useless.

Small nuclear reactors would therefore be needed.

In 2018, NASA and the Department of Energy successfully completed a demonstration project, the Kilopower Project.

Ultimately, the goal will be to manufacture materials on site using mined resources, probably with 3D printing machines.

Development is embryonic, but the Artemis program will be a testing ground.

- Colonies? -

Musk has proposed colonizing Mars, with a first expedition to build a factory that converts Martian water and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into oxygen and methane fuel.

"Becoming a multi-planet species," he said in a 2017 speech, "beats the hell out of being a single-planet species."

Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, likewise advocates for the creation of "new branches of human civilization."

That no progress has been made since humanity last walked on the Moon in 1972 is, to him, shameful.

"It was as if Columbus had come back from the New World the first time and then (king and queen) Ferdinand and Isabella had said, 'so what, we're not interested,'" he said.

Not everyone is convinced.

"Enough of the nonsense!" said exobiologist Michel Viso from CNES, the French space agency.

"We have an amazing planet with an atmosphere, with oxygen, with water...It's criminal, you don't have the right to fool people into thinking there is a 'Plan B,' a 'Planet B,' that we will have a Martian civilization."

Whether humanity installs a colony or permanent bases, the most important obstacle, for a lasting human presence on Mars, will be to convince people to accept a higher level of risk than for the Moon or the ISS, argues Buckland.

In the long run, not everyone will return.

© 2020 AFP

Brazil's Bolsonaro fed up with quarantine, to take new virus test

Issued on: 14/07/2020

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who says he is bored staying at home after testing positive for COVID-19, feeds emus outside the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia Sergio LIMA AFP

Brasília (AFP)

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in quarantine nearly a week after testing positive for the new coronavirus, announced Monday he plans to take another test as he "can't stand" being in isolation.

The result of the test, which is scheduled for Tuesday, "should be out in a few hours, and I will wait quite anxiously because I can't stand this routine of staying at home. It's horrible," Bolsonaro said in a telephone interview with CNN Brazil, from his official residence at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia.

Since the beginning of the crisis, the far-right president has dismissed the seriousness of the epidemic and criticized containment measures ordered by governors in Brazilian states.

During his interview, Bolsonaro said that he feels "very well" and has no fever or problems breathing. He also has not lost his sense of taste, one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19.

"Tomorrow, I don't know if the new test will confirm (the virus), but if everything is fine, I'll go back to work. Of course, if it's the other way around, I'll wait a few more days," said the 65-year-old, adding he hoped to resume his activities within a week at most.

"Otherwise everything is fine. We are working by videoconference all the time and we are doing our best not to let things accumulate," he said.

Brazil is the second-worst hit country in the world, after the United States. As of Monday, 72,833 people had died out of 1.8 million confirmed cases.

During his weekly Facebook Live post last Thursday, Bolsonaro said that after feeling unwell, he had started taking one hydroxychloroquine tablet every day.

The drug, originally tested to fight malaria, has been pushed as a treatment for COVID-19 in many countries -- but its effectiveness has not been formally proven and the issue is deeply dividing the global scientific community.

"I took (hydroxychloroquine) and it worked, and I'm fine, thank God. And let those who criticize it at least offer an alternative," he said during the Facebook Live.

© 2020 AFP

Brazil's displaced indigenous struggle in concrete jungle far from home

Issued on: 14/07/2020 -

Angoho, an indigenous woman of the Pataxo Ha-ha-hae community, wears a face mask at the Vila Vitoria favela on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, Brazil DOUGLAS MAGNO AFP

Belo Horizonte (Brazil) (AFP)

Forced to leave her home after last year's Brumadinho dam disaster that killed 270 people, indigenous woman Angoho Pataxo Ha-ha-hae is now fighting the coronavirus sweeping through her community in the concrete jungle of a favela far from her ancestral home.

"Here in the neighborhood there are already 120 cases, if we go on like this more people from our group will be contaminated," said 53-year-old Angoho, panting for breath as she spoke.

The Pataxo Ha-ha-hae people are an 11,000 strong indigenous group from Bahia in northeastern Brazil.

But Angoho and her husband Hayo, the community's chief, are living in a two-room concrete house in Vila Victoria, on the the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil's biggest cities and a world away from their ancestral home.

They were diagnosed with COVID-19 in early July and are trying to fight the disease with a combination of ancient tribal remedies and Western medicine.

Suffering from fever, she coughs a lot and sometimes has trouble breathing. Five other members of her family also have symptoms of COVID-19.

Thirteen families from her village have settled in Vila Vitoria, and others have left for other Brazilian states.

It is her family's third home, having originally been forced our of Bahia.

"In Bahia we were deprived of water on our land because of the eucalyptus farms in the area and we left in search of better living conditions," she said, speaking slowly and haltingly because of her breathing problems.

Together with about 20 other Pataxo Ha-ha-hae families, they traveled more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to settle on the banks of the Paraopeba River in Minas Gerais state.

But on January 25 2019, a massive dam owned by the Vale mining company at Brumadinho collapsed, releasing tonnes of toxic waste into the river, on which the indigenous people depended.

The tragedy killed 270 people and swept away the livelihood of hundreds of others. Earlier this year, Angoho and her family decided to move on for Belo Horizonte.

"We left there because we couldn't take it anymore, the river was dead, we couldn't plant or fish, we were getting sick," said Angoho, who became a prominent critic of the environmental and human tragedy.

Millions of tons of toxic mining waste engulfed houses, farms and waterways, devastating the mineral-rich region in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

- 'Living in peace' -

From the roof of their modest red brick house in the favela, Angoho gazes out over a urban landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see.

She still wears a majestic traditional tribal headdress of black and white feathers and a yellow protective mask that matches the geometric patterns of her body paint.

Some days, her husband is unable to leave his bed with COVID-19. She tries to treat him with traditional remedies, including herbal teas made from ginger, avocado pits, tobacco leaves or rosemary.

Her family is among those receiving compensation from the Vale mining conglomerate, following a court decision in the wake of the disaster. But she says it is not enough and the family has to rely on donations to survive.

"But we don't want to live on donations. We know how to plant, we know how to make crafts. We just want our land back so that we can live in peace," she says.

© 2020 AFP

France raises pay for health care workers by more than €8 billion

Issued on: 13/07/2020 -

French Health Minister Olivier Véran (R), flanked by Prime Minister Jean Castex (L), delivers a speech after signing wage agreements as part of talks aimed at improving working conditions, salaries and patient care in the medical sector at the Hotel Matignon in Paris on July 13, 2020. © Thomas Samson, AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES

The French government and unions signed an agreement Monday giving over eight billion euros in pay rises for health workers, with the prime minister admitting the move was overdue in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

During the peak of the outbreak in France, people applauded every night health workers who in turn said that such gratitude rang hollow if it was not followed by concrete steps.

The bulk of the package comprises 7.5 billion euros ($8.5 billion) for pay increases for nurses and careworkers, who will get an average monthly raise of 183 euros ($208).

There is also 450 million euros ($510 million) for doctors intended to bolster wages for those who solely work in the public sector, a move aimed at luring them from more lucrative private clinics.

"No one can deny that this is a historic moment for our health system," Prime Minister Jean Castex said after a signing ceremony that followed seven weeks of negotiations between government and unions.

"This is first of all recognition of those who have been on the front line in the fight against this epidemic," he said.

"It is also a way of catching up the delay for each and every one -- including perhaps myself -- has their share of responsibility."

But some unions, including the hardline CGT, refrained from signing the accords, an indication that tensions over the issue may not be over.

The coronavirus epidemic has now killed over 30,000 people in France and while infection rates have fallen markedly, officials remain wary of the risk of a second wave.

(AFP)


France’s health workers march for pay raise as country pays homage virus heroes on Bastille Day


Issued on: 14/07/2020 

The French government approved pay raises to health workers on Monday, but unions say it is not enough. While Bastille Day celebrated these same workers who were on the frontline in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, unions marched in Paris asking for a higher raise, as FRANCE 24’s Chris Moore reports.

Superheroes and skater videos: young LA entertainers lead new activism

 14/07/2020

AJ Lovelace, co-founder of Blac 4 Black lives; Melina Abdullah, civic leader; activist and singer Paris Draper; Ciera Foster, actress and co-founder of Blac 4 Black Lives; Jasmyne Cannick, social justice advocate; and Tyson Suzuki, film editor and founder of "Active Advocate" VALERIE MACON AFP

Los Angeles (AFP)

In a town that sells silver-screen fantasies to the world, young Los Angeles entertainers are using their Hollywood talents to inspire and lead a new generation of real-life protesters.

"I tell everybody we're all superheroes, because superheroes are the best of humanity," says Ciera Foster, who plays one in web television series "Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe."

"We're walking, breathing history right now."

When not controlling machines with her mind as an African-American superhero, Foster organizes demonstrations against racism and police brutality through the streets of Los Angeles.

Like many in the entertainment industry, Foster -- a students' rights and justice reform activist for years -- spoke out after witnessing footage of the killing of George Floyd in May.

Many young volunteers create "super-well produced" images of the protests that go viral on social media, including for her Black Leadership Allied Coalition.

Drone footage of more than 20,000 people peacefully marching down Hollywood Boulevard last month spread rapidly around the world, becoming an enduring image of the mass movement.

"We have photographers hanging off bridges and the sides of buildings covering us. They're sending these full-on Sundance Festival pieces... it's amazing," said Foster.

- 'We are the change' -

Tyson Suzuki, a young black film editor from Hawaii, has led daily anti-racism protests to the Los Angeles mayor's doorstep at City Hall since Floyd's death.

"We start protesting but we do it in harmony: 'Eric Garcetti, listen. Eric Garcetti, listen. We are the change. We are the change.'"

His Active Advocate group aims to achieve 100 continuous days of protest, but the thirtysomething leader's activism also goes back many years.

Suzuki began campaigning as a teenager when he realized his editing skills -- honed making skater videos -- could be of use for a campaign against big tobacco.

"I'm not an overnight activist, I am an organizer," he says, noting that many of those who support him also work in entertainment.

"We all work in the creative economy. When you're creating something, you are innately developing a conceived idea, and the idea is driven with passion. Right now, the passion is destroying racism."

For 28-year-old filmmaker AJ Lovelace, that means "doing socially conscious films and plays" as well as using technology and social media to help protesters "find the specific group they align with the most."

"My plan to keep the momentum going is to continue to create content," he says.

- 'A better future' -

The Los Angeles movement against racism does not just emerge from and employ the techniques of Hollywood, but actively targets the movie industry itself.

Jasmyne Cannick, a 42-year-old social justice advocate, says it is no surprise "that young people in entertainment are pushing back" given the racism still rampant in the sector.

"All the people who 'love black people' in Hollywood -- they haven't done a good job, because it's still been allowed to continue all this time," she said.

"I guess it just takes young people to come in basically with the attitude of 'we don't care -- we're going to get this done.'"

For Paris Draper, a 20-year-old singer and activist, her generation's focus on empathy and kindness offer hope for radical change.

"We definitely differ from past generations because we are taking the time to hear each other out," she says.

"I think in this day and age we are all trying to have a better future."

© 2020 AFP

BIGGEST FRENCH UNION OPPOSES MACRON REOPENING FRANCE
 BECAUSE IT CAN'T BE DONE SAFELY

Paradise regained then lost: Med mammals mourn lockdown end

Issued on: 14/07/2020 -

Aquatic creatures such as these common dolphins swimming off the southern French coast benefited from less sound pollution from pleasure craft during lockdown Christophe SIMON AFP

La Ciotat (France) (AFP)

When Europeans retreated into their homes to observe strict stay-at-home rules to contain the coronavirus, dolphins and whales on the Mediterranean coast basked and thrived in a hitherto unknown calm.

But the return of tourists, noisy boats and heavy sea transport with the end of lockdowns in France and other Mediterranean littoral countries has signalled the return of danger and harm caused by human activity for underwater creatures.

Nowhere is this more true then in the crystalline waters outside France's second biggest city of Marseille, a nature reserve important for wildlife but also thronged with day-trippers in the summer season.


"As soon as the pleasure boaters came back, we saw footage that really annoyed us," said Marion Leclerc from the conservationist organisation Souffleurs d'Ecume (Sea Foam Blowers).

In one video, three teenagers jump from a boat close to a finback whale while wearing snorkelling masks, which is dangerous for both animal and human, said Leclerc.

"We're speaking of an animal that weighs 70 tons," she lamented.

"Many forget that the Mediterranean is also a home, where animals rest, feed and reproduce," Leclerc said.

The Mediterranean Sea is home to more than 10,000 species, despite only amounting to 1 percent of the Earth's oceans.

But the sea which separates Africa from Europe draws 25 percent of marine traffic.

Heavy traffic increases the risk of fatal collision with the sea mammals.

"It's the first cause of non-natural mortality for big cetaceans," said Leclerc.

- Reduce speed -

Out of the 87 marine mammals in the world registered by the UN, 21 have been spotted in the Mediterranean. Most of them are considered at risk of extinction.

On a bright summer's morning, a group of fifty striped dolphins splash around an inflatable blue speedboat off La Ciotat bay a short boat ride from Marseille.

"We need to reduce our speed and place ourselves parallel to their trajectory to avoid cutting their path. They come and play if they want to," said Laurene Trudelle, at the helm of the boat belonging to the scientific research group GIS3M.

The lockdown brought maritime traffic to an almost complete standstill, giving dolphins and whales the opportunity to explore areas from which they are normally kept at bay by tourists.

All scientific studies were put on hold in the Mediterranean during lockdown, but marine drone manufacturer Sea Proven got the necessary authorisation and funds from Prince Albert II of Monaco to continue observations in the Pelagos Sanctuary, a marine area protected by Italy, Monaco and France.

- 'Reversible pollution' -

Bioacoustics researchers from a Toulon University team who analysed Sea Proven's data, observed a 30 decibel decrease in noise on the coastal areas as a result of the total lack of pleasure boaters.

And the silence allowed the aquatic creatures to interact in areas between two and six times as large, said researcher Herve Glotin.

"The lockdown period showed that we really are responsible for the noise in the bays and that this pollution is completely reversible," Glotin said.

"When you think that reducing boats' speed by 10 percent in areas highly populated with marine mammals would be enough to significantly decrease sound pollution and the risk of collision" Glotin added.

The Quiet Sea research project also saw the amount of hydrocarbon -– the principal component of petrol –- halve during lockdown.

"It's really good for biodiversity, so indirectly for all of the food chain," said Glotin.

No binding international law obliges ship-owners to preserve marine mammals' natural habitat.

But since 2017, France requires boats that are over 24 metres (78 feet) in the Pelagos Sanctuary to have onboard equipment which detects the animals.

© 2020 AFP