Sharks, Turtles… and Turning Points

Some days change something. Not because of a spectacular event or a scientific breakthrough, but because you can feel it — quietly — a new relationship with the ocean taking shape. Today was one of those days.

It began with a simple question on the boat, as it often does.
One of the young divers asked me how many sharks are killed every year.
When I answered 70 to 100 million, the whole group fell silent.
Then came the second question:
“But… why?”
And that’s when everything started moving: industrial fishing, finning, the disappearance of a predator the ocean desperately needs. Then we talked about the role of turtles in Mayotte --
the gardeners of the lagoon — cleaning seagrass, redistributing nutrients, maintaining a fragile balance very few people know about.

These simple exchanges are where sparks begin.

The “Naimi Effect”And then there’s Naimi.
When she joined the program, she was preparing for her math–physics baccalauréat, bright, focused, heading toward the classic science path.
But dive after dive, something shifted.
She started asking different questions. Not just “how does this work?” but
“could I work in this field one day?”
Today, she says out loud what she barely dared to think a few months ago:
she’s considering marine biology.
That’s not a small turn — it’s a whole life pivoting, quietly, shaped by experiences underwater, by encounters, by understanding.
When a 17-year-old begins to look at the ocean not as a backdrop but as a possible future,
it means something real is happening.

Diving Is No Longer a Hobby — It’s a Doorway. The questions are changing.
In the beginning they asked:
“Is it deep? How long will we stay? What fish is that?”
Now it’s becoming:

• “How do you become an instructor?”
• “What comes after Level 2?”
• “Can you work underwater?”

They’re moving from enjoyment to projection, from discovery to aspiration,
from experience to vocation.
It’s exactly what I hoped for — quietly, secretly that diving wouldn’t just be an activity, but a gateway to a deeper understanding of their island, their lagoon, their future.

A New Relationship with the OceanSharks, turtles, seagrass, reefs…
These are no longer abstract words.
They’re things they’ve seen, felt, understood, protected.
A new relationship with the ocean is taking root.
Not through big speeches --
but through accumulated experience:

• putting on a wetsuit,
  
• learning to breathe underwater,
  
• being watched by a fish,
  
• floating in the blue,
  
• realising you belong to something larger.
  

It’s these small moments that redraw an entire future.

And Me, in the Middle of All ThisI watch them evolve, grow, open up.
This isn’t just a project.
It’s a transformation.
Each time a young diver tells me,
“I’d like to work in the ocean too,”
I feel that all the hours teaching, filming, reassuring, guiding…
they all land somewhere meaningful.
The Ambassadeurs du Lagon are no longer teenagers learning to dive.
They are slowly becoming the Sentinelles du Lagon --
the future guardians of a world they’re only beginning to understand.
And that might be the most beautiful thing I’ll have witnessed here.