(Nouméa) Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia, had banned swimming after two shark attacks, including one fatal in early 2023. The installation of a huge anti-squala net allowed the beaches to reopen on Wednesday, delighting bathers , but raising fears for the environment.
From 6 a.m., at the start of the southern summer where the temperature is already above 29°C, the Baie des Citrons, the busiest beach in Nouméa, the capital of the French Pacific archipelago, has regained its activity .
All day long there will be retirees, athletes coming out of the office to do laps and groups of teenagers racing to the platform at sea.
“It’s really nice,” smiles Roina, manager of the Le Babar café: “we lost a lot of customers with the ban on swimming. The cars passed without stopping, it was sad. There is no longer a free parking space, we hope that the number of visitors to the establishment will follow.”
“I was looking forward to it,” adds Karen, who is getting back to her habits and her friends from the aquagym class.
On January 29, a teacher was seriously injured, followed three weeks later by a fatal bite inflicted on an Australian tourist. These attacks led to a total ban on swimming.
Nouméa town hall announced last week the reopening of its beaches thanks to the installation of a gigantic metal mesh net 750 m long, providing a secure 10 hectare body of water in the heart of the city.
Another, smaller net will be placed in the coming days on the beach at Château-Royal, where the two attacks occurred.
“Before the ban, I went swimming at Nouville beach,” further from the center, “but I don’t know if I’m ready to go back. I’m apprehensive. Here, thanks to the net, I am reassured,” explains Luce Boulier
Concerns for biodiversity
Although swimming is now authorized everywhere, few venture into the water outside the protected area of the Baie des Citrons, where surveillance teams have been reinforced.
Coming to raise the green flag for the first time in eight months, the commander of the Nouméa firefighters, Géraldine Bourgoin, is delighted with a “welcome return to normality”.
But the net has its detractors. Starting with the “Fantastic Grandmothers”, tireless retirees and local celebrities who have been carrying out daily counts of marine species for years for scientific studies.
Some came to get into the water, with a pang in their hearts.
Because while no attack has ever been recorded in the Baie des Citrons, the net now completely closes the bay, whose reefs, exceptionally preserved in an urban environment, are full of corals, fish, but also turtles, rays and harmless sharks. -Leopard.
Too big to slip through the cracks, these animals had to be evacuated.
What long-term impact for biodiversity? “For the moment, it’s a little early to say. But from the moment we destabilize an ecosystem, this ecosystem will inevitably be disrupted,” assures AFP Aline Guemas, one of the “Fantastic Grandmothers”.
“The evacuated turtles and rays have no other place to go. It’s their place to live, but our decision-makers don’t care! The problem is that the turtles eat the algae that settles on the coral and without their presence, this coral will eventually die,” she adds.
The investigating commissioner responsible for the public inquiry had issued an unfavorable opinion on the project, due to uncertainties about the environmental impact. The city of Nouméa, for its part, believes that all the necessary measures have been taken.