“We imagined that for 2040 or 2050,” confides biologist and oceanographer Gilles Boeuf

“We imagined that for 2040 or 2050”confides biologist and oceanographer Gilles Boeuf, guest on franceinfo Monday September 30, while the rate of warming of the oceans has almost doubled since 2005 according to a report from the European Copernicus observatory published Monday.

This increase in ocean temperature has numerous consequences, explains the specialist, former president of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. “As soon as a body of water is warmer, it contains less oxygen”details the oceanographer. However, the warmer the water, the more marine species such as fish need oxygen to live. Thus in the Mediterranean, “Everything that can move goes away”he says. Gilles Boeuf was recently presented with a dolphin sea bream “caught in Arcachon”while this fish comes “from the West Indies”. “Off the coast of Brest, the fish have been traveling approximately 25 kilometers per year towards the north for around thirty years”he adds.

The increase in ocean temperature also leads to a rise in water levels, which threatens certain islands and their populations. “A warmer body of water takes up more space”explains Gilles Boeuf, who recalls that as water heats “continental glaciers are melting”. The ocean is rising “much faster now than it has in the past 4,000 years”. Evaporation is also higher when the ocean warms, which can lead to more storms, hurricanes and flooding.

Finally, while the ocean traps “between 25 and 35% of CO2”researchers today wonder “if he’s going to be able to do that ad vitam aeternam”confides Gilles Boeuf. So he calls “roll up your sleeves” so that measures are put in place “to produce less greenhouse gases”.