Underwater France: Ria d’Etel

The Ria d'Etel is a remarkable natural site very popular with Bretons and numerous tourists looking for landscapes and authentic human activities.

This “little sea in the countryside” (Le Parisien, 03/15/19) is also a mecca for scuba diving with many sites accessible from the shore. The fauna and flora are exceptionally rich and attract thousands of divers each year from the 230 clubs in Brittany and the Pays de la Loire.

One of them, photographer Daniel BLIN, has been diving there for 30 years. Today he probably has the largest underwater image bank in Ria d'Etel with more than 20,000 photos.

A local natural heritage
Most works popularizing the underwater world convey a stereotypical image, between exotic photographs of the South Seas and emblematic animals such as the dolphin, turtle, shark, etc. We see that younger generations are unaware of underwater diversity. , beyond the fishmonger's stall. Even rarer are those who are aware of the biological diversity of their territory.

However, it is their natural heritage, one which should allow them to visualize more concretely the importance of their everyday eco-citizen actions.

The desire to amaze
Scuba diving is not a water sport like any other. Paradoxically, if practitioners remain invisible once immersed in water, they are probably those who give the most visibility to their discipline, by disseminating their underwater photographs.

For those who are lucky enough to see them, at an exhibition, they marvel at the richness and variety of the species, their range of colors and go so far as to doubt the place where the photo was actually taken. .

The need to raise awareness
The compilation of the most beautiful underwater images selected according to their aesthetic quality would have produced a beautiful photographic book. The project is quite different: to disseminate the most beautiful photos, of course, but by selecting those which lead the reader to better understand this little-known environment.

By diving regularly, season after season, on the same sites, the author was able to measure the life cycle of species, their development or decline as well as the impact of human activities.

The desire to transmit
To extend the discovery, a photo exhibition is planned for fall 2023. It will be accompanied by educational fact sheets as well as access to videos bringing to life the species present in the photograph. The objective is to make them accessible to establishments in the district as well as to as many people as possible.

The contents of the book
The 156-page work includes nearly 115 underwater photographs taken over 30 years in Ria d'Etel.

Each image is accompanied by a text which provides a more intimate or more anecdotal reading of the author's relationship to photography. Some of them invite the reader to put themselves in the role of an underwater photographer through a game of observation. There are also videos accessible via a QR code.