Sea Boost is based in Montpellier. Its purpose is to carry out projects to develop marine biodiversity while adapting to human demands. In this case, it took three years to build a reef village which will be submerged in Cap d’Agde in June. The goal is to take divers there so that they no longer swim in a fragile natural environment.
Interview with Joffrey Capet, eco-design engineer and project manager for Sea Boost.
What is the purpose of this Sea Boost business?
It is a company based in Montpellier that designs and develops solutions to restore and develop marine biodiversity. This involves environmental studies on the marine environment. It also goes through design and manufacture of turnkey products to restore and develop biodiversity at sea in several ecosystems. Namely Mediterranean ecosystems, shallow rocky bottoms, sandy ecosystems, in port areas, in coral areas, therefore on a plurality of ecosystems in a plurality of countries.
In the Hérault, for example?
In the Hérault, we work on the Languedoc facade. It is an ecosystem that is mostly sandy. We come to offer artificial reef solutions. They are then colonized and inhabited by biodiversity. Our measures often reconcile human needs and biodiversity restoration needs.
For example, in Cap d’Agde, we came to put 30 meters of ballast to replace the blocks filled with concrete that were once used to mark out the 300-meter zone in summer. And we came to put structures that are intended to make a point of biodiversity locally instead of having something that has no ecological functionality.
It must take some gymnastics to succeed in combining the demands that are linked to human needs, leisure or other with the biodiversity that must be developed in the sea?
The goal is to try to reconcile the two. That is to say that we try to bring the maximum of characteristics to the environment so that each species finds its account there. We try to bring a support for local economies. For example, a project may increase fish stocks as biodiversity is developed and restored. Small species will develop there and as a result, there will be fish that will grow in it and therefore more fishing for fishermen.
Likewise, in port areas. We set up what are called port nurseries which aim to increase the survival rate of juvenile fish species. They will grow in calm waters and will come, once they are at a fairly developed stage, to grow offshore stocks. We provide an artificial habitat for these juveniles to increase the survival rate of the species.
More information on the Sea Boost website.