May 23, 2008
Claire Nouvian’s Deep-Sea Exhibit at WTO
Claire Nouvian, world-renowned author and curator, and ocean ambassador for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), will launch The Deep: Life on the Deep Sea Floor at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday, May 26. The exhibit features selections from Nouvian’s widely acclaimed The Deep show, which opened at the Natural History Museum of Paris in November 2007.The exhibit was organized by Nouvian specifically for the WTO and features stunning images of magnificant sea life that can be found at the great depths of the ocean floor. Nouvian also will be joined by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy and Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of IUCN’s global marine programme.Nouvian is an accomplished author and film director dedicated to raising awareness about the unknown creatures and threats related to the deep sea. In a three year period, and with the cooperation of eminent international researchers, Nouvian gathered an unprecedented collection of photographs of deep-sea creatures, including images taken by submersibles capable of diving up to 6,000 meters deep. From this collection, she chose the most spectacular images to highlight, including vampires of the deep, finned octopi, living fossils and fragile bioluminescent creatures.The WTO is currently negotiating about fisheries subsidies as part of its Doha trade round. Many of these subsidies promote overfishing, pushing fleets to fish longer, harder and farther away that would otherwise be possible. The WTO provides the single-best opportunity to address subsidies and overfishing on a global scale.