Alexandra Cousteau: “The oceans my grandfather filmed were different — the loss of biodiversity and pollution is evident”

Alexandra Cousteau en la UNOC3 de Niza | M.V.
Alexandra Cousteau en la UNOC3 de Niza | M.V.
Tiempo de lectura: 5 min

In the early 1970s, Jacques Cousteau visited the Spanish coast aboard his ship, the Calypso. The commander had been invited by his Spanish counterpart, Rafael Taibo, the voice of his documentaries in Spain. He was delighted with the visit but horrified by one thing: the noise from party halls, boats, and attractions—all of it audible underwater. The ocean is a noisy place. But half a century later, it is even more depleted and polluted. Alexandra Cousteau, his granddaughter, raises her voice with the conservation NGO Oceana: “The Mediterranean is the most polluted sea in the world—especially due to microplastics—and the fastest-warming.”

Publicidad
  • Q: Is what you find now when diving very different from what we saw in your grandfather’s documentaries?
  • A: The oceans my grandfather filmed for the first time in the fifties and sixties, especially in the Mediterranean, are completely different worlds from what we see today. There were enormous groupers weighing hundreds of kilos. There’s a famous scene where he does an underwater dance with a giant grouper named Jojo. The grouper was bigger than you!

    We had an extraordinary and magical underwater universe. And much of that has disappeared. The fish are very small now and there are far fewer. Even when I was a child spending summers in southern France, there was no plastic back then. We regularly saw octopuses and all kinds of marine creatures.
  • Q: Is none of that left in the Mediterranean?
Publicidad
  • A: When I go now, I see none of that. There has definitely been a loss of abundance in the Mediterranean. And this is linked to all these human activities: overfishing, climate change, plastic pollution… The Mediterranean has the highest concentration of microplastics, four times more than any other body of water. It is a shared, historic, and cultural resource. It is loved but under serious threat.
  • Q: Regarding plastic, we used to fear oil spills, but now… could plastic be your biggest concern?
  • A: Oceana has carried out very powerful campaigns on plastics over several years. They have found that every minute the equivalent of two garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the ocean. So yes, we are continuously adding more. And this is something that urgently needs to be addressed. You can’t even tell where it’s coming from anymore, because microplastics are falling from the sky. They are in rivers, they are in our bodies. And I think people don’t realize that yes, they are in reefs, but also in the fish we eat.
  • Q: Your grandfather was horrified by how noisy the Spanish coast was. Do you think this problem is getting worse?
  • A: I don’t have concrete data, but oceans undeniably have a noise problem that interferes with echolocation, communication, and navigation of marine mammals.
Publicidad

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that overfishing could wipe out up to 37% of fish populations. One in ten marine species is on the path to extinction. A recent Oceana report revealed that 344 ships from EU companies operate under flags of countries where they are not actually registered. These are lax nations when it comes to illegal fishing.

Spain leads this unfortunate ranking within the EU. A study conducted at the University of Santiago de Compostela found at least 228 industrial fishing vessels flying flags of convenience from Panama or Senegal, where laxity with destructive practices is well known.

  • Q: Do you still have hope in the political and diplomatic class when there is a president like the one in the U.S. (which certainly has plenty of ocean) who says he wants to authorize deep-sea mining even beyond their waters?
  • A: We cannot expect too much from big conferences. We need more political courage from leaders—especially on marine protected areas.
Publicidad
  • Q: It’s a thorny topic. Is conservation discourse being poisoned by telling small-scale fishermen “look, in the name of the environment, they’re after you”?
  • A: The conversation has become very polarized—and it shouldn’t be that way. When the public thinks of fishermen, they imagine the artisanal fishers they see in their ports. They don’t realize that when we call for strict protections of marine areas, we mean the activities of industrial fishing fleets. And many times, those artisanal fishermen, who provide jobs, feed their communities, and support local economies, are the ones at risk precisely because these zones aren’t protected.

    If we don’t manage to maintain oceans with abundance and resilience, in a future with greater climate uncertainty, more negative impacts, more marine heatwaves, and more acidification, we risk losing far more than just the chance to fish in a protected zone. We will keep working so that national governments have the political courage to do what is needed. We come to UN conferences, but we do much more than that. It’s too soon to say it’s too late.

This story was produced as part of the 2025 UNOC Fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.