Fragile yet very much alive, this semi-enclosed sea is home to an unexpected biodiversity. Naturalist photographer Greg Lecoeur pays tribute to it in a traveling exhibition.
Originally from Nice, 46-year-old Greg Lecoeur, a naturalist photographer, specializes in the marine world. He won the National Geographic Nature Photographer Award in 2016.
Black Pilot Whales Encountered off the Côte d’Azur « People are often surprised to learn that the Mediterranean is home to large cetaceans, » says Greg Lecoeur, who has been photographing marine life across all five continents since 2011. Twenty years ago, his friends at the Nice diving club had even received his account of an encounter with a pod of black pilot whales off the Côte d’Azur with disbelief. At the time, as a business owner, he was sailing on a calm sea when about sixty of these large dolphins, recognizable by their bulging heads, appeared around his boat. « These animals are very curious and social. The water was so clear that we could see them moving as if in a pool, » he recalls. This « unforgettable moment » prompted him to buy his first camera, marking the beginning of his award-winning career.
Pelagos Sanctuary, the Largest Protected Marine Area in the Mediterranean Since then, he has focused on revealing the vitality of this sea, which represents just 0.8% of the ocean’s surface but is home to 17% of the known marine species. Between 2023 and 2024, he took scientists aboard a catamaran five times to the Pelagos sanctuary, the largest protected marine area in the Mediterranean. These missions helped catalog the fauna of this zone, located between the French, Italian, and Sardinian coasts, ranging from zooplankton to the fin whale (the second-largest whale in the world), and even the penguin.
Free exhibition at the port of Genoa, Italy, until February 28, 2025.
Source: Geo
