Mediterranean Alliance Rescue (MAR)

"Saving lives, preserving biodiversity and producing clean energy".

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Excerpts from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -Adopted on December 10, 1948 in Paris by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2
1. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
2. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, legal or international status of the country or territory of which a person is a national, whether such country or territory be independent, trust, non-self-governing or subject to any limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 9
No one shall be arbitrarily arrested, detained or exiled.

Article 13
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within a State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

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The Mediterranean Sea is the world's deadliest maritime migration route, and a sea where human rights and fundamental freedoms are violated with impunity. The risk of migrants and refugees being shipwrecked and dying at sea has never been higher, due to conflicts that are accelerating departures from the coasts at an alarming rate, and the crying lack of NGO vessels to carry out rescues. In the space of a decade, the Mediterranean has turned into a veritable sea of blood, with 29,589 deaths and disappearances recorded since 2014 (IOM figures). This staggering figure is actually much higher, as indeed many of the migrants disappear without a trace, particularly in cases where people are lost at sea or in shipwrecks with no survivors. Hundreds of wrecks linked to no known shipwrecks are thus found on the coasts. Too many people who are victims of heinous trafficking and treated as currency flee conflicts, poverty and environmental disasters. Unfortunately, their quest for a better future is rejected in the waves.


The Mediterranean Sea is also experiencing one of the greatest losses of biodiversity in the world, with 40% of marine species considered to be in decline (Source : RED 2020, Plan Bleu). The causes are manifold : shipping, overfishing, offshore drilling, tourism, artificialization of the coastline and seabed, coastal landfills and marine pollution, microplastics, underwater noise, oil spills and hazardous materials. Yet the Mediterranean Sea is home to a rich variety of marine species - 17,000, i.e. 18% of the world's known marine species. 78% of assessed fish stocks are overexploited. Marine predators (including mammals) have declined by 41%. 9% of the marine area is officially protected, with only 10% of these sites implementing management plans. The Mediterranean is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, with 17% of the world's tanker capacity and 26 millions cruise passengers per year. In addition, 360 millions tourists are largely concentrated in the Mediterranean basin during the summer months and in coastal areas, generating a gigantic amount of pollution that is harmful to the entire marine ecosystem.


In terms of demographic trends, the population of the southern Mediterranean basin is set to increase by around 140 million.
As a result, by 2050, total primary energy demand is expected to reach 1,404 Mtoe (Million tons of oil equivalent), with an increase of 67% for the southern countries alone. The Mediterranean energy mix is currently made up of just 15% renewable energies, nearly 60% of which are used to generate electricity. The basin's energy system is not yet on track to achieve the level of decarbonization required to meet the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement. The current energy mix is not very diversified, and should urgently increase its share of renewable energies as the countries of the Mediterranean basin continue along the path of electrification and the abandonment of traditional hydrocarbons (oil, natural gas and coal) in favor of energy sources requiring fewer fossil resources, foremost among which are renewable energies such as solar, wind and hydro.


In short, the Mediterranean is the scene of one of the greatest migratory, ecological and energy crises of modern times. Maritime conventions divide the sea, people and spirits into several zones, where the law is applied differently between international waters and the limits of territorial waters, de facto reducing the capacity to resolve these multiple, interconnected crises. Communication between maritime players (border guards, coast guards, merchant ships, yachtsmen, etc.) is all too often non-existent, or even totally broken. Rescue coordination and maritime zone management have become chaotic in the Mediterranean Sea. Rescue services almost never arrive on site, or arrive too late, due to a lack of fraternity and material resources, resulting in a growing number of deaths. The policy of every man for himself and the lack of a common vision are alarmingly accentuating the collapse of biodiversity and the preservation of marine areas. The lack of ambition and the excessive exploitation of fossil fuels "business as usual" are not contributing to the development of renewable energies.


The Mediterranean Sea alone perfectly highlights the excesses of our times and the collapse of a model that has become unsustainable and deadly.
Lack of humanity and fraternity, racial discrimination, competition between peoples, a culture of indifference and the usual geopolitical, cultural, economic and strategic divisions between nations are at the root of this debacle. Yet we are all responsible for, linked to and interdependent on each other, and cooperation between neighbors at regional and national level is urgently needed to halt the degradation of the Mediterranean basin in its tracks. To curb the phenomenon and improve the lives of millions of people, (re)unification and (re)dialogue should (re)become the norm. As such, a cross-border alliance should logically be created with a view to establishing a genuine network across the entire basin, and finally be in a position to save many human lives, repair the degraded marine ecosystem and enable the production of decarbonized local energy.


MAR (Mediterranean Alliance Rescue) embodies this network by proposing the networking of multi-purpose rescue platforms on a "grid" covering the entire Mediterranean Basin. These platforms are strategically positioned so that each one can cover an area 70 kilometers in diameter, enabling rescue teams to operate across the entire Mediterranean Sea without any area being left behind, considerably multiplying the chances of bringing assistance to would-be exiles and bringing them to safety. After months, even years, people rescued at sea are often in a fragile state of health, due to the violence they have experienced and the appalling conditions in which they have been held during their journeys (bullet wounds, infections, fractures, signs of torture, skin diseases...).
On board the platforms, medical teams can take charge of the survivors' state of health from the moment they are rescued until they are disembarked on land.


Each platform is self-sufficient in energy and has a capacity of 150 berths, as well as a catering room, showers, a command and research room, crew berths, storage rooms for equipment and foodstuffs, and several outdoor pontoons for resting. In addition, the geometry and mooring system are designed to minimize the environmental impact of the platforms on the seabed.


These back-up platforms are above all versatile, depending on their location on the grid. Those closest to the coast are designed to generate low-carbon electricity and offer prospects for economic development. They transform hydraulic energy into mechanical energy, which is then converted into electrical energy by an alternator. Depending on the intensity of ocean currents in the areas where they are located, these multi-functional platforms for backup and power generation are located in territorial waters, to ultimately supply existing coastal towns and infrastructures.


Relief platforms positioned further offshore have a role to play in ecological restoration and scientific and oceanographic research. They help repopulate fish populations by creating nurseries and shelters for adult and juvenile fish, with the aim of preserving and generating biodiversity. They are also a scientific tool for observing protected and unprotected marine areas, and for forecasting, inventorying and monitoring marine biodiversity.


In conclusion, the MAR (Mediterranean Alliance Rescue) concept offers a new way of looking at the Mediterranean Sea, so that tomorrow it can become a cradle of fraternity, coexistence and the safeguarding of life in all its forms.

And make saving human lives, preserving the environment and producing low-carbon energy a real duty of civilization!