The marine biologist, who has made 15,000 dives and participated in 58 expeditions of the National Geographic Pristine Seas project, has highlighted that “water is life” and has invited us to reflect on the little value given to the marine environment.
The day's program was completed with presentations and discussion tables on international projects in the Blue Economy, the environment or decarbonization in maritime transport, among others.
The Employment Fair, with more than 200 participants and the collaboration of 12 companies, has been another of the strong points of the day
The marine biologist, explorer and underwater documentary filmmaker Manu San Félix has been in charge of the opening presentation on the second day of the Blue Zone Forum Innovazul 2026 that is being held until tomorrow at the Cádiz Conference Center, on a day that dawned marked by the tragedy of yesterday's train accident in Toledo and that has caused various activities on the agenda to be suspended, reducing it to a strictly academic profile.
Manu San Félix focused his intervention on the importance of the oceans for the survival of the planet and the need to reinforce their protection. "We know about 6,000 planets, none like this one. Water is the beginning of everything. Water is equal to life, life is equal to water," he stated. San Félix has warned of the risks of altering marine ecosystems without knowing its consequences: "We are warming, we are transforming their composition, adding CO₂. That is reckless", while recalling that a single marine cyanobacteria, called Prochlorococcus, generates between 20% and 30% of the planet's oxygen.
During his conference, San Félix invited us to reflect on the little attention that humanity pays to the marine environment, despite its essential importance for life. “Why do we call our planet planet Earth?” he asked, before defending that “the only one that is different, that has water, is this one, where we live.” The explorer has assured that “what we have is a miracle” and has stressed the need to become aware of the uniqueness of a planet whose surface is mostly covered by water.
The expert has also shared his experience during the 18 years that he has been linked to Pristine Seas, the National Geographic marine conservation project, with which he has participated in numerous expeditions to remote places on the planet. “We have achieved almost six million square kilometers of protected ocean, in 31 marine protected areas,” said San Félix, who has defended the importance of promoting conservation initiatives capable of translating into concrete results for the protection of marine biodiversity.
Manu San Félix focused his intervention on the importance of the oceans for the survival of the planet and the need to reinforce their protection. "We know about 6,000 planets, none like this one. Water is the beginning of everything. Water is equal to life, life is equal to water," he stated. San Félix has warned of the risks of altering marine ecosystems without knowing its consequences: "We are warming, we are transforming their composition, adding CO₂. That is reckless", while recalling that a single marine cyanobacteria, called Prochlorococcus, generates between 20% and 30% of the planet's oxygen.
During his conference, San Félix invited us to reflect on the little attention that humanity pays to the marine environment, despite its essential importance for life. “Why do we call our planet planet Earth?” he asked, before defending that “the only one that is different, that has water, is this one, where we live.” The explorer has assured that “what we have is a miracle” and has stressed the need to become aware of the uniqueness of a planet whose surface is mostly covered by water.
The expert has also shared his experience during the 18 years that he has been linked to Pristine Seas, the National Geographic marine conservation project, with which he has participated in numerous expeditions to remote places on the planet. “We have achieved almost six million square kilometers of protected ocean, in 31 marine protected areas,” said San Félix, who has defended the importance of promoting conservation initiatives capable of translating into concrete results for the protection of marine biodiversity.
Manu San Félix also dedicated part of his speech to analyzing the deterioration of the Mediterranean, a sea that is especially vulnerable due to its geographical characteristics. "The most polluted sea in the world, the Mediterranean. The one with the most plastics, the Mediterranean. The most overfished, the Mediterranean," lamented the marine biologist, who, however, wanted to convey a message of hope: "What we do wrong is noticed sooner. That is, we have to see it differently. If we do it well, it will be noticed sooner." In this sense, he has defended the need to recover the richness of marine ecosystems and remember what they were like decades ago to understand the magnitude of their transformation.
The expert has insisted that science has demonstrated the effectiveness of marine protected areas in recovering biodiversity and promoting fishing activity. “We have a solution, we know perfectly well what to do,” said San Félix, who has defended the protection of 30% of the oceans as one of the main measures to reverse their deterioration. “Science has said, we have to protect, because protecting works,” he stressed, recalling the international agreement reached at the 2022 Montreal Biodiversity Summit to advance the conservation of natural ecosystems.
His participation has allowed us to discover some of the most extraordinary places on the planet through the experiences, photographs and underwater images of an explorer who has dedicated a good part of his life to documenting both the richness of marine biodiversity and the threats that compromise its future.
And the biologist has spoken of more than 45 years of experience, nearly 15,000 dives and a career linked to National Geographic, a journey that he has shared with the attendees and who he has recommended to be very careful and aware of the need for conservation and recovery of marine ecosystems.
Since 2009, Manu San Félix has been part of Pristine Seas, the National Geographic project dedicated to the exploration and conservation of the oceans. Within the framework of this initiative, he has participated in 58 expeditions to different places around the world, a trajectory that has allowed him to learn about marine ecosystems of great ecological value and observe both their deterioration and their capacity for recovery. Its message is based on a central idea: protecting and recovering the marine environment also means investing in the health, well-being and happiness of people.
After yesterday's tragedy and the mourning over the train accident that caused various activities on the planned agenda to be suspended, the day has maintained a strictly academic profile with presentations and debate tables.
There have been very diverse options that have ranged from the most environmental, such as the table on the oceans led by scientists David Costalago and Cynthia Barzuna, to the decarbonization of maritime transport, led by Antida Citores, general director of Green Marine Europe; Rafael Sánchez Durán, general director of Endesa in Andalusia and Extremadura; and Adolfo Felix Rozadillas, responsible for ports and renewables at Ghenova.
Another of the most requested technical tables has been the one related to the financing policies of the European Union in the Economy. Moderated by Raquel Ibares, General Director of the Spanish Maritime Cluster, Antonio de la Cruz, managing partner in Strategy and Organization of EOSA, participated; Natacha Rivas Campos, general director of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Blue Economy of the Junta de Andalucía; and Emilio Iglesias Cadarso, Area Head of the Department of Institutional Promotion and Territorial Cooperation of the CDTI Innovation.
More than 200 attendees at the Employment Fair
Great interest has been aroused, especially among the younger public, by parallel activities that connect training and companies. One of them has been the Blue Economy Job Fair, an initiative attended by more than 200 people, and which has brought together companies, entities and professionals with the aim of facilitating access to new job opportunities and promoting the incorporation of talent into sectors linked to the blue economy.
The fair, which was held in parallel with the expert presentations, featured more than 30 employment and internship opportunities in areas such as naval engineering, marine and environmental consulting, offshore work, scientific research, underwater robotics and new technologies applied to the marine environment.
The activity has allowed students, recent graduates and experienced professionals to learn about the hiring needs of participating companies, discover different possibilities for professional development and establish direct contact with organizations that carry out their activity in the Blue Economy.
The collaboration of the 12 companies and entities linked to different areas of the blue economy that have participated in it and which have been Atridel, EONSEA, Tecnoambiente, MacPherson Servicios Subacuaticos, Sea Master Engineering, SAES, GHENOVA, Surcontrol, SGS, Blue-jobs, the Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN-CSIC) and the Institute of Development, Employment and Training have been essential to celebrate this space. (IFEF) of the Cádiz City Council.
The diversity of participating organizations reflects the transversal nature of the Blue Economy and the variety of professional profiles demanded by the sector, from engineering and industrial activity to scientific research, environmental sustainability and technological innovation.
As a complementary activity, the workshop “Design your blue CV and apply successfully” was also developed, given by Blue Jobs, in which practical tools were offered to adapt resumes to the professional opportunities of the blue economy, identify the most in-demand skills and improve the presentation of applications.
Artificial Intelligence Hackathon
As a parallel activity, the Blue Core Artificial Intelligence Hackathon has been especially welcomed, in which 20 participants have worked on developing solutions for four business and technological challenges in a collaborative work session aimed at exploring solutions to business and technological challenges.
Organized in teams, the participants had to address the four challenges posed by the Cádiz Free Zone, the Vigo Free Zone, the University of Cádiz and Navantia, related to different areas of activity, specifically business digitalization (design of solutions to improve commercial management through dashboards and CRM tools), Internationalization (development of proposals to promote the international expansion of a company in the seaweed sector), sustainable blue tourism (creation of an application capable of offering experiences personalized and sustainable tourism) and offshore wind (proposing solutions to monitor and inspect facilities using drones, sensors and artificial intelligence, with the aim of detecting anomalies and anticipating maintenance needs).
Throughout yesterday afternoon, the teams worked on the design and prototyping of their proposals using artificial intelligence tools such as Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Lovable, Google Stitch and Perplexity.
The activity concluded with the presentation of the solutions through brief presentations or pitches, in which the participants explained their proposals, the selected technologies and their possible application to the challenges posed.
The Hackathon made it possible to put into practice the potential of Artificial Intelligence as a tool to accelerate ideation processes, analyze technological alternatives and develop prototypes aimed at the real needs of companies and institutions.
Blue Zone Forum InnovAzul 2026 is part of the ZF Blue Core-Business Incubator 4.0 project, 85% financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the Pluriregional Program of Spain FEDER 2021-2027, through the INCYDE Foundation.