Spanish filmmaker Rafa Herrero Massieu has released a brief film tribute to biologist Didier Marchessaux and his colleagues Alain Argiolas, Gerard Vuignier and Ely ould Elmine, who were killed in a landmine explosion on 16 October 1988 while researching the important Mediterranean monk seal colony in the disputed Western Sahara.
August / Agosto from Rafa Herrero Massieu on Vimeo.
Thanks a lot to Rafa Herrero for the beautiful and touching images commemorating Didier and his collegues. They loook like a dream. A dream that we all, working for the monk seal conservation in the Mediterranean, would like could become reality… Please give us some more!
Thank you for this breathtaking sequence and for commemorating a colleague whom I wish I had had the chance to meet.
Thanks a lot for those really beautiful pictures commemorating Didier, my beloved and regretted husband. I am happy to see that 23 years after the tragedy, some people are still remembering.
Your images are breathtaking, he would have loved them !
Tres belles images et émouvant souvenir de didier Marchessaux connu à Port cros dans les années 1985/1988
With Didier I have been in Cap Blanc, Aloynissos, Skiatos. Together we succeeded in finding finances to finance his activities and the Cap Blance Reserve. We pleaded for the monk seal in the French Environment Ministry and the European Parliament. Above my bed I have still hanging two pictures of monk seals made by Didier. In his dissertation he named one of the seals Hemmo. His death is one of the saddest events in my life. I still think of him regularly. He was a good, good friend.
I just found this page. I was looking information on this terrible event… because I was there the day the survival member of the team arrive to nouhadibou. I spent hours with the french doctor, the tension was very high in the airport, closed by armed forces. then i flight to Marseille in the plane sent by the French government and the doctors on board asked me to help them. I never forgot the pain in spite of medication… I lived extraordinary event in my normal life and I would be happy to know how the survival went along after that. and how to download this tribute.
Bel hommage à Didier que j’ai rencontré à Port Cros vers 1985 lorsque j’étais medecin sur l’île.
Souvenir de cette petite communauté de scientifiques tous passionnés par le milieu marin.