Eighty young people, including a Bordeaux student, came together to develop concrete proposals for the protection of the ocean. Having become « ambassadors », they will now present their measures on fishing or pesticides to elected officials to try to move the lines.
For the second year, Ifremer, Les Petits Débrouillards and the Climate Academy are organizing the Congress of Young People Committed to the Ocean. Eighty young people aged 18 to 28 participate from September 8 to 10, 2026 in an ideas laboratory in Paris. Objective: to better understand the major scientific issues related to the Ocean, to confront their points of view with those of researchers and to build recommendations to feed the public debate.
Concerned by the ocean
Among the participants, a young Bordeaux. Maxime Drillon, 21, is a first-year student of a master’s degree in sea sciences at the Sorbonne in Paris. With other students from different backgrounds, he worked on the theme of ocean pollution by pesticides in order to draft a concrete measure that will be presented to elected officials in the coming months.
« It made me want to meet people from different backgrounds. » Maxime Drillon, 21, did not hesitate to register when he discovered the existence of the Congress of Young People Engaged for the Ocean on the Ifremer (French Institute for Research for the Exploitation of the Sea) website.
I have the impression that the ocean is too unknown from a scientific point of view.
Maxime Drillon
master’s student in sea sciences
After a bachelor’s degree in life sciences in Bordeaux, the young man turned to the sailor after internships in the fishing sector in Albania and in marine biology, Sweden. » And then, I come from Bordeaux which is near the sea and I have often been to the Arcachon basin, so I feel concerned ».
Drafting a measure for the protection of the ocean
At the congress, he attended conferences, met researchers and personalities such as female politician Catherine Chabaud. But the Bordeaux part from Bordeaux mainly participated in the writing of a measure in his working group on the subject of ocean pollution by pesticides. « There was the transition of the fishing sector, aquaculture, several themes that were divided into panels, » explains the student. In his group, other students like him but in different subjects: economics, law, social and science.
« We were first presented with a scenario, a projection in 2050. In this scenario, the situation continued to deteriorate but not catastrophically, so there were no drastic changes. Our goal was to find a feasible measure.
We started from agriculture that brings the most pesticides into the ocean. And we sought to limit the implementation of intensive agriculture in coastal areas and limit the existing one, with aid to create buffer zones and avoid the phenomenon of runoff ».
Meet the politicians
At this second congress, about twenty measures must emerge from the reflection of these young people, future actors in the society of tomorrow. « In a second step, these young people will meet elected officials in their territory. They will be « ambassadors », continues Maxime Drillon.
Their proposals will then be presented to elected officials, including parliamentarians during the « Tour de France – From scientific knowledge to public decision for the Ocean » organized by Ifremer in mainland France and overseas.
Young people must not only be made aware of the challenges of the Ocean but it is essential that they participate fully in the formulation of the choices that will engage their future.
François Houllier
President and CEO of Ifremer
Make the voice of young people heard at a time when the ocean is undergoing rapid and brutal transformations. « The ocean is often put aside compared to terrestrial problems, but this is beginning to change and I would like to participate in this change, » says Maxime Drillon. Seeing young people from different backgrounds is an engine. »
« There is a question I ask myself, » he says, « he who hopes to become a researcher in marine biology, « can these measures awaken new consciences? » After this congress, the student is sure of one thing: « Solutions can only come from the collective. »
