Jean Louis Teyssié was a radioecologist at the International Atomic Energy Agency. "Atoms for Peace" is the motto of the IAEA, which develops techniques to study the impacts of nuclear and non-nuclear contamination in aquatic, terrestrial and aerial ecosystems. Environmental therapy is one of the main objectives of this United Nations organization.

The IAEA received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Passionate about Nature, JLT tries to make the general public aware, through underwater photography and video, of the application of basic precautionary principles in terms of the management of aquatic ecosystems. He swims up rivers and canyons in the south of France to photograph and film the expressions of life in a few centimeters of fresh water.

Creator of the "Ecolomiste" movement which reconciles a clean economy with a dynamic ecology, scientific advisor, JLT tries to apply the results of scientific laboratory research in the field by favoring heritage management and intelligent monitoring of ecosystems via bioindication to protect the biodiversity. Results: the rivers managed according to this scheme have seen their animal populations revived.

Who knows the caddisfly, the simulid, the stonefly, the white-clawed crayfish, the blageon, the sculpin, the gerris? Cleaners, recyclers, filterers, aquatic animals clean up the water in our rivers. Each living entity has had a specific role in the balance of freshwater ecosystems for millions of years. Useful and creative, life expresses itself in aquatic ecosystems to surprise us with its biodiversity.

Bioindicators of clean waters, biodiversity diplomats, the people of the water are unknown to the general public. To discover it is to get to know it to better protect it and better protect yourself. He is our ally. To ignore it selfishly is to lose the memory of a thousand-year-old biodiversity and reach the deserts of resources.

This people has been threatened for a hundred years by our industrial, household, over-tourist activities, our negligence of comfort, our waste. If it disappears from our waterfalls, the water will no longer be cleansed, naturally balanced. It will be polluted and unfit for consumption. The Water People assure human beings of clean waters. Without these cleaners, these aquatic sentinels, water treatment would be more and more sophisticated, expensive to have the luxury of drinking water at taps and toilets (France is a country that uses drinking water in flushing toilets). water to evacuate urine and faeces)

The biodiversity at our feet is in danger. Knowing it better means better protecting our rivers and their inhabitants from anthropogenic stress and climate change. From water to pixels, the key is to get the information to the general public. No need to go to the antipodes to photograph the exotic fauna and flora, the local trip is at our feet and the total change of scenery in a few centimeters of fresh water. This photo site reveals "The Water of Life", a precious asset that each of us must preserve. Only ecological citizenship, communication and education will save our aquatic heritage.

JLT presents an extract of his underwater photographic work. He exhibited at the United Nations in Geneva, Vienna, Monaco, Cevennes and on the Côte d'Azur in France.

BIODIVERSITY AND BIOINDICATION

Biodiversity is an explosion of expressions of life. All the species of our planet have very useful specificities for the men who seek information for their comforts. Man copies Nature to optimize his technology. He finds food and medicine there. To destroy nature is to destroy oneself. The example of the men of Easter Island proves it well. Mismanaging natural resources means disappearing.

Water is the good of all and it is high time to make it known to the general public to manage it well and waste it less. The water in our rivers is home to an astonishing biodiversity threatened by human activities in a society in the process of overconsumption. Each animal, from the smallest to the most visible, has a specific role in the food chains of our waterways. Their disappearance is a sign of an imbalance in the river, generating polluted waters unfit for our consumption. The aquatic animals of our waterways are the guarantors of healthy water. More or less sensitive to pollutants, they survive with difficulty or they disappear from their ecological niche.

Bioindication and biodiversity are complementary. The animal and plant species that inhabit our planet are sensitive to contamination of ecosystems. They react specifically. They are sentinels or bioindicators. Some disappear, others resist and accumulate, retainent, metabolize, transmit in the food chains the contaminants released by men. The absence and presence of these bioindicators inform us of the health of the ecosystems and the interventions to be carried out to rehabilitate them. These interventions can be better targeted if the resistant species specify the type of contamination. It is easier, less expensive to measure contaminants concentrated in a living organism than dissolved in water, air, sediments. These bioindicators reflect the health of the biodiversity of our rivers.

The main inorganic and organic contaminants in waterways are micro and nano plastics, nano and micro fibers released by the washing of our clothes, cigarette butts, the abandonment of surgical masks in Nature, heavy metals, radionuclides, pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, hydrocarbons, detergents, fertilizers. River animals take them in through direct contact or ingestion. These sneaky contaminants bio-magnify along food chains and accumulate from bacteria to humans. We find in fish at the end of the aquatic food chains, heavy metals from abandoned mines (As, Pb, Hg, Cd, Ag, Zn, Mo, Co…) Chernobyl radionuclides (137Cs) and in their nervous systems, their brains nano-plastics, carcinogenic nano-fibers resulting from degradation in water of bags, cigarette butts, bottles, pipes, plastic materials, fabrics, masks, surgical gloves etc… Nano-plastics and nano fibers are very dangerous for health. They are already present in milk, cheeses, vegetables, fish, game, drinking water, and…. beer !

Biodiversity is useful in the search for new molecules to treat many diseases, but with bioindication it becomes an incredible source of information on the ecosystem state of our waterways. This is an additional reason to protect the aquatic animals of our rivers.

Let's hope that bioindication will save the biodiversity so useful to humans. Let's hope our river doesn't become Easter.

Jean Louis and his companion Ptiloup continue to snorkel in the rivers of southern France. JLT has created a Cevennes aquarium in the old mill in the village of « Les Plantiers » where it exhibits from time to time. An aquarium bus is planned to spread responsible ecological citizenship and environmental therapy adapted to climate change, to children in deep France. A project for an underwater photographic school in fresh water is emerging in the Cévennes as well as a second Cévennes aquarium. We must not give up. We must protect Nature which feeds us, protects us by communicating, by informing, by developing pragmatic strategies in the field, sources of environmental therapies. Photography has a great power of emotional communication.

So if you see two friends in wetsuits in the rivers of southern France: it's us! We continue to photograph and communicate.


teyssie@free.fr
jeanlouisteyssie.com
http://teyssie.free.fr