Wearing a diving suit with the message “PROTECT-ENFORCE-RESTORE” under the French flag, Alessia Zecchini dived 40 metres.
Marseille, 4 June 2025 - World champion Alessia Zecchini performed a free dive off Marseille, calling on France to permanently close bottom fishing in the Gulf of Lion Fisheries Restricted Area (FRA), and to take urgent action to protect the most vulnerable ecosystems of the Mediterranean. The symbolic action organised with the NGO MedReAct happened in the lead up to the United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice (UNOC, 9-13 June), where world countries will discuss supporting actions to preserve the oceans
Wearing a diving suit with the message “PROTECT-ENFORCE-RESTORE” under the French flag, Alessia Zecchini dived 40 metres in the archipel of Frioul, near the only Fisheries Restricted Area established by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), where bottom trawling is still allowed in the large majority of the protected area.
“As a professional diver the sea is my life, but now, when I dive in the Mediterranean, I see a desertified landscape. I used to dive since a young child, and today, some twenty years later, I’m witnessing the worsening of the Mediterranean crisis”, said Alessia Zecchini.
“The Gulf of Lion is one of the areas in the Mediterranean with the worst depletion of some fish stocks such as hake. Overfishing also impacts vulnerable marine ecosystems and species, aggravating climate change impacts”.
“Yet the Mediterranean maintains a potential to recover, if immediate and effective conservation measures are put into place. We must take action now, to ensure the resilience of the Mediterranean and the future of coastal communities who rely on its resources”, concluded Zecchini.
Established in 2008, the Gulf of Lion FRA was meant to protect fragile deep-sea ecosystems and spawning grounds for commercial species. However, over 15 years later, bottom trawling is still allowed for six months each year, defying the 2008 GFCM scientific advice for a permanent ban.
Despite President Macron’s 2021 commitment to strictly PROTECT 5% of French Mediterranean waters by 2027, progress has been minimal. The Gulf of Lion FRA remains a glaring example of France’s failure to ENFORCE its own commitments in the Mediterranean.
In stark contrast, the Jabuka/Pomo Pit FRA in the Adriatic, where bottom trawling was banned in 2017, has seen fish biomass more than double in just a few years, proving that full protection works and can RESTORE fishing grounds heavily overexploited.
“France cannot credibly lead global ocean protection while failing at home,” said Domitilla Senni, MedReAct’s Executive Director. “With this symbolic dive we want to sound the alarm on the marine crisis of the Mediterranean and urge France to act now to fully protect the Gulf of Lion FRA and speedily move forward to reach its 5% full protection target.
