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Anita Conti (Armenian: Անիթա Գոնթի;[1] née Caracotchian) (17 May 1899 – 25 December 1997) was a French explorer and photographer, and the first female oceanographer in her country.
Anita Conti | |
|---|---|
Anita Conti in 1935 | |
| Born | Anita Béatrix Marthe Caracotchian 17 May 1899 |
| Died | 25 December 1997 (aged 98) Douarnenez, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Other names | La Dame de la Mer |
| Occupation(s) | Explorer, photographer, oceanographer |
| Known for | First French female oceanographer |
| Notable work | Racleurs d'Océan (1956) |
| Spouse | Marcel Conti (1902-1994) |
| Children | Laurent Girault Conti (1956-) |
| Honours | Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (December 31st 1993) |
Between the two World Wars, she began drawing the first fishing maps, when only navigation charts were available. Her scientific activity helped to rationalize deep-sea fishing practices and revolutionized aquaculture.[2] But from the 1940s onwards, she became concerned about the effects of industrial fishing on halieutic resources and ecosystems.
Anita Beatrix Marthe Caracotchian was born on 17 May 1899 in Ermont, Seine-et-Oise.[3] Her father was Léon (Leven) Caracotchian, a physician in the field of obstetrics of Armenian origin[2] who owned a clinique in Paris.[4] He was born on the 5th of May 1870 in Andrinople (today Edirne, Turkey) and passed away on the 18th of January 1956 in Saint-Michel-sur-Orge, Essonne.[5] Her mother was Alice Albertine Lebon, a French upper middle class lady.[4] Anita had one brother, Stéphane.[5]
She spent her childhood being educated at home by different tutors and travelled with her family. In Brittany and Vendée, Anita regularly embarked with fishermen who awakened in her a great taste for the sea.
During the First World War, the family moved to the Island of Oleron where she initiated herself to photography, sailing and reading.[4][6]
After moving to Paris age 19, she wrote poems and started binding books. Her unique style was imbued with her Oriental travels and readings. For example, she used skins dyed according to recipes learned in the Caucasus. These creative innovations attracted the attention of many collectors and amateurs.
Her Parisian workshop notably welcomed Pierre Mac Orlan, who nicknamed her "the one who listens to books speak". Before ending her career as an art bookbinder in 1939, she was rewarded with numerous prizes in prestigious London, Paris, New York and Brussels salons, such as the Salon d’Automne or the Salon des Arts Décoratifs.[6]
On the 4th of January 1927, Anita Conti married Marcel Conti, an embassy attaché in Vienna. For a time, they lived in the 16e arrodissement in Paris and their house was thought to be home to monkeys, birds, foxes, toucans...[7] He left her free to travel and write her own reports. Thus, in 1934, she published an investigation on oyster beds.[8] Anita Conti also worked as a journalist for Le Figaro,[8] L'Illustration; Neptuna; Mer et Colonies; Eve, le journal idéal de la femme or even for Le République.[9]
In 1934, Anita Conti was hired by Eduard Le Danois, a French zoologist, at the OSTPM (today called IFREMER) as "propaganda manager". In 1935, during the inauguration of the "Palais de la Mer" (Biarritz Aquarium), her role was to receive journalists. She then joined the first océonographic vessel, Président Théodore Tissier.[10] Although self-taught, she took measurements and samples, while observing fishing techniques. Gradually, the whole team built up a first oceanographic database as they travelled between Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Iceland and Spitsbergen.[2]
In 1939, she spent 3 months on the Fécamp fishing trawler Vikings.[11][4] On board, she developed a technique for cartographing specialised fishing maps, different from the used navigational charts. She published many scientific reports on the negative effects of industrial fishing.[1] She has left many photographies documenting life on board and has set a series of parameters (water temperature, salinity, etc.) and their influence on fish populations.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, from November 1939 to January 1940, she was employed by the National French Navy on minesweepers in Dunkirk.[4][2][12] There, as the only woman, she had to make her own uniform.[4] She wrote an article about these missions in "l'Illustration".[5] In May 1940, she took part in the evacuation of the World War II Battle of Dunkirk. She is generally acknowledged as the first woman actively participating in the French Navy ships.[13]
Back in France, she escaped the Occupied Territory on board the fishing trawler Le Volontaire.[2]
From 1941 onwards, she discovered new fish species unknown in France and their nutritional values in regards of protein deficiency for the local populations in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali (formerly French Sudan), Guinea, Ivory Coast, Niger, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) and in the Republic of Benin (Dahomey)[4][9] In 1943, the Provisional Government of the French Republic in Algeria commissioned her to investigate the fishing resources of West Africa as well as to conduct a study on traditional fishing methods.[14]
During ten years, she worked to develop better conservation techniques, trained artisanal fishermen with new fishing methods and installed artificial dens and dryers for further studies. She founded many smokehouses and an experimental fishery for sharks in Guinea as she particularly focused on making known the virtues of shark liver, which is particularly rich in vitamins. Gradually, she became more and more conscientious of the misuse of natural resources by European fishing industries and the major waste that could be prevented.[2][1] Throughout her work, she didn't use Western standards but rather traditional fishing techniques.
When French institutions stopped subsidizing her initiatives, Conti created her own company in Conakry, Guinea, with the aim of continuing her research, promoting local fishing and improving conditions. However the difficulties accumulated: violent storms destroyed facilities, and in the 1950s she returned to France.
From her travels between Port-Etienne and Conakry-Gbessia she brought back a python called Héliodore.[15]
In 1952, she worked on a 74 meters Fécamp fishing vessel, Bois Rosé III with Captain Eugène Recher. [4][11][16] In her book Racleurs d'Océan (1953), Anita Conti denounces the desastrous exploitation of halioeutic ressouces used by these boats. It was translated in 1955 into Spanish (Surcadores de océanos) and English ( Deep Sea Saga ). Indeed, she was outraged by the waste she saw on board the ships, which threw large quantities of fish into the sea trapped in the nets because they had no commercial value.
At the end of the 1950s, she worked for the Commander Jacques Cousteau for two years at the Oceonographic Museum in Monaco. She listed poorly classified species.[2]
In 1961, she made it clear through the media that discarded fish could be sold and consumed. She persuaded a trawler to keep sabrefish in its holds, which she sold at auction. It was bought by Parisian restaurateurs who promoted their culinary use.[8] She also tried testing how to supply ships with selective capture systems.
In 1971 she published L’Ocean, les bêtes et l’homme, to denounce the disaster created by Man and its effects on oceans.
For the rest of her life, she advocated for the betterment of marine life during many conferences and forums.
On the 27th January 1986, Anita Conti met 30 year old illustrator Laurent Girault, on a parisian peniche owned by Jacques Rougerie for the publishing of his book Les Enfants du Capitaine Némo. He became her adopted son.[7][4] After 1990, they lived together rue de la Plage in Fécamp. Laurent Girault-Conti is currently working on a book about their relationship, Haute mère.[4]
For a time, she lived 186 rue de Rivoli in Paris.[4]
On May 30, 1993, Anita Conti inaugurated the Cité de la Mer museum and interpretation centre, created by the Espace Scientifique et Technique des Resources Aquatiques et de la Navigation (ESTRAN) in Dieppe and became its godmother. For her 98th anniversary, a grand party was hosted. Sea captain Jean Recher, Catherine Chabaud and Paul Vatine were present.[8]
She died on 25 December 1997 in Douarnenez, Brittany on the evening of a terrible storm.[17] Louis Le Pensec, French Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries at the time, wrote: "Anita Conti - our great lady of the sea - has left us in Douarnenez on a stormy night that was also a Christmas Eve".[2]
Anita Conti's ashes are scattered in the Iroise Sea.[5]
In 2004, Laurent Girault-Conti, Anita's adopted son, donated more than 45 000 of her photographic works to the town of Lorient. The association "Cap sur Anita Conti" has decided to digitalise 28 000 of these black and white photos. They are consultable on their website.
All of her kinemastic works are also consultable on the Brittany Cinéatèque website.
Conti's honorary title "La dame de mer" is said to come from Yves La Prairie, the founder of the research institute Centre national pour l'exploitation des océans (CNEXO), forerunner of IFREMER. The term quickly spread among journalists and sailors.[18] La Prairie paid tribute to her as La dame de mer de la France in the anthology Nos Marins (2005).[19]
Many French school or infrastructures were named after Anita Conti:
Delivered in July to the GIE Dragages ports, the running suction dredger Anita Conti was christened in January 2014 in Pauillac. Equipped by the large maritime port of Bordeaux, it replaces the Pierre Lefort vessel.[20]
On 17 May 2019 Google Doodle commemorated Anita Conti's 120th birthday.[21][22]
On June 2, 2018, the symphonic work Anita, op. 81 by the French composer Benoît Menut was premiered by the National Brittany Orchestra. This piece was inspired by thousands of photos taken by Anita Conti during her trips, in particular those taken during the Newfoundland campaign on board the vessel Bois Rosé in 1952. Benoît Menut describes his music as lyrical and contemplative.[23]
Anita Conti famously said: "La mer est un miroir qui nous ramène à notre propre ignorance".[5]
As mentionned earlier, Anita Conti has left us many newspaper articles. Here are some examples:
In l'Illustration:
In Mer et Colonies, of the French Maritime and Colonial League:
In Neptunia, of the Association of Friends of the Musée de la Marina:
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