From Tahiti, we especially know the postcards of the surface or the photos that you can take yourself with your flippers and snorkel. But Alexis Rosenfeld, who travels the seas of the planet under the sponsorship of Unesco, for a 10-year mission intended to raise awareness of the situation “dramatic” of the oceans, sets out to discover unexplored worlds. And the photographer, whom TF1 accompanies in the depths of Polynesian waters in the 8 p.m. video above, is not immune to big surprises.
The exploration that day takes place between 40 and 80 meters deep. And what the photographer and the scientists accompanying him will discover will greatly exceed their expectations: in the heart of the Pacific, a deep coral reef, looking like fields of giant roses, which could be one of the largest in the world. . A very aesthetic valley for the photographer, a mine of information for scientists. For the moment, researchers have already identified three kilometers of this reef in perfect health and preserved from environmental disturbances.
Alexis Rosenfeld even had the chance to immortalize an exceptional event during one of his dives, which lasts one hour: the spawning of corals. “This is the first time that we have witnessed such an event in depth“, he assures TF1, showing on a screen a cloud representing the seed of coral.
While 14% of the reefs have already disappeared due to global warming, these hopeful photos, which Alexis Rosenfeld has just brought back from Tahiti, will be used for new exhibitions. Discover these exceptional images in the report at the top of this article.