Looking for the Cosmopolitical Fish: Monitoring Marine Pollution with Anglers and Congers in the Gulf of Fos, Southern France

Abstract

Following a controversy over the construction of a waste incinerator in the Fos-sur-Mer industrial area (France), residents pointed to the lack of knowledge of the industry’s cumulative impact on their health and environment. Under pressure, some of their elected representatives supported the creation of an independent scientific organization, the Ecocitizen Institute for Pollution Awareness ( Institut écocitoyen pour la connaissance des pollutions [IECP]). Its objective was to conduct localized scientific research on the effects of pollution and to lobby the administration to change its regulatory practices. This paper examines the efforts made to ensure that the “undone science” gets done, by focusing on the specificities of this industrialized site. We look at a participatory biomonitoring experiment that aimed to document pollution in the Gulf of Fos where scientists working for the IECP accepted anglers’ requests and switched from an acknowledged sentinel species to another species. We tell the many stories that were shared with us about how conger qualified as a more suitable “cosmopolitical fish” in the study of pollution. Elaborating on actor–network theory and multispecies ethnographies, we discuss the appropriateness of congers as the newly appointed sentinel species. We argue that this demonstrates the importance of the “ecology of relations” in maintaining the livability of the area.

Sensing Collectives

“…It can also highlight how less established tactics facilitate public engagements 'by other means,' as outlined in science and technology studies (STS). Such practices can include participatory research, citizen science and environmental sensing techniques Gramaglia & Mélard, 2019;Kuchinskaya, 2019), which not only visibilize sociotechnical issues but also affect the ways in which we relate to our sociotechnical environments. They also include artistic performances that enact sociotechnical relationships in aestheticized ways (cf.…”

La recherche transdisciplinaire au sein des institutions d’enseignement supérieur et de recherche

“…À travers cet exemple, nous montrons que des pratiques renouvelées, par d'autres moyens et d'autres acteurs (y compris non humains), permettent de produire des connaissances plus robustes et surtout immédiatement appropriables, garantes d'une gestion des risques plus efficace. Les études sociales des sciences et les études multispécifiques étayent nos propos (Gramaglia et Mélard, 2019).…”

Tracking penguins, sensing petroleum: “Data gaps” and the politics of marine ecology in the South Atlantic

“…Environmental "sensing practices" may serve diverse political goals and objectives for humans and more-than-human subjects (Gabrys, 2019;Howe, 2019), but their ethical and social origins lie in imperial hunting, domestication and policing, rather than principles of reciprocity common to Indigenous hunting and trapping (Berkes and Turner, 2006;Blaser et al, 2004;MacKenzie, 1997;Whyte, 2013). While some citizen scientists and advocates seek to use animal sensing data to situate nonhumans in broader relational dynamics or spread awareness (Gramaglia and Me´lard, 2019;Haraway, 2007: 249-263;Pritchard, 2013;Ray, 2014), others may be motivated by state or corporate interests in surveillance programs, designed to capture control, and not necessarily to reduce harm.…”