The Lady From The Sea
As the UN’s third Ocean Conference takes place in Nice, the horrors of ’bottom trawling’ are exposed, and David Attenborough launches his Ocean series, it’s time to meet another champion of the seas: Sabine Roux de Bézieux.
‘I love the sea, whether it’s green, blue or grey,’ she declares. You will find her out on the water in rain, wind or storm – in fact, in whatever conditions the French Atlantic coast can throw at her. It’s almost as if she has no choice. ‘I need to see the sea regularly, to be on the water.’
She grew up with sand between her toes, sailing around the wild coast of Le Croistic in Brittany with her parents, and her enduring passion for the sea led her to join with others to set up the Foundation for the Sea, which she has headed up since 2015, because she felt the sea was being short-changed when it came to research and conservation. It was an opportune moment: Paris was hosting COP21, so what better time to convene marine biologists, oceanographers, mariners and others to get the subject of the sea on every agenda.
Although the Foundation has been in existence for ten years, she feels there is still a long way to go – and she has a particular beef with the term ‘climate change’. ‘It doesn’t scare anyone because we’re used to conditions changing day to day, season to season, year to year… We should instead be talking about “climate breakdown”, so that people understand that we have changed the climate forever.’
The other problem is that we seem to be happy to let the oceans continue to be a great – and somewhat scary – mystery. ‘We spend billions on space probes to explore Mars when we should be spending that amount on exploring the depths of our oceans. There are hundreds of thousands of species still to be discovered, which could yield genetic material and other elements that could be the cures of tomorrow.’
While she thinks big, Roux de Bézieux is not afraid to get down among the (sea)weeds with beach clearance. ‘My first experience of cleaning up a beach was a real shock. It was a beach I knew well, and I thought it was clean… I was nose-deep in microplastics washed up alongside the other flotsam and jetsam.’
The Foundation’s educational mission is reflected in the materials it produces for young people, both in print and online, to bring home the importance of the oceans in regulating climate. The Echo of the Ocean booklet follows Fabrice Amedeo, a competitor in the Vendée Globe race, on his journey across the Atlantic. Online, they were able to track the progress, through videos and interactive maps, of François Gabart, Tom Laperche and their team competing for the Jules Verne trophy in their trimaran. The Foundation also offers annual awards for those who have made positive contributions to the oceans. Winners in 2025 range from Hélène Labach, whose charity Miraceti works on conservation of marine mammals, to Eric Banel, France’s Director General of Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture.
But Roux de Bézieux also has a day job, as CEO of Notus Technologies, an organisation that supports small and medium-sized enterprises. Local businesses that they have recently invested in include cake company Le Fondant Baulois and specialist chocolate company Caramandes…
No one could accuse her of not casting her net wide.