‘Our hearts are broken’: Family of French Titanic experts pay heartfelt tribute to ‘one of the greatest deep-sea explorers’ following the deaths of the Titanic Five

• Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, was part of the first human expedition to visit the Titanic wreck in 1987 and has visited it at least 35 times
• He was among five people aboard the doomed OceanGate expedition who visited the wreck on Sunday
• The deaths of everyone on board were confirmed Thursday: Nargeolet’s family paid tribute to his life and legacy; his sense of humor and “his big heart”

By Harriet Alexander for

Published: 12:54 AM, June 23, 2023 | Updated: 1:28 AM, June 23, 2023

The family of the French Titanic expert who died in the OceanGate disaster paid tribute to his life’s work, fondly remembering his sense of humor and “big heart”.

It was confirmed on Thursday that Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, died in the tragedy along with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61; British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, 58; and Pakistani father and son Shahzada Dawood, 48; and Suleman Dawood, 19.

Nargeolet — commonly known as PH — was part of the first human expedition to visit the Titanic wreck in 1987 and had visited the site at least 35 times.

Nargeolet’s family was joined by relatives of the other four, all of whom praised their curiosity and sense of adventure.

The Nargeolet family said: “Our hearts are broken at the loss of our extraordinary father and husband.”

“He is a man who will be remembered as one of the greatest deep-sea explorers in modern history.” When you think of the Titanic and everything we know about the ship today, you think of Paul-Henri Nargeolet and his legendary work think.

“But what will remind us of him most is his big heart, his incredible sense of humor and how much he loved his family.” “We will miss him today and every day for the rest of our lives.”

The family of French naval veteran PH Nargeolet on Thursday paid tribute to the 77-year-old’s “legendary work”.

Nargeolet is on display with a replica of the Titanic wreck at a Paris exhibition in May 2013

The Nargeolet family also thanked everyone involved in the search and rescue effort.

Born in the French Alps in the ski resort of Chamonix, Nargeolet was married to former New York news anchor Michele Marsh. She died of breast cancer in 2017 at the age of 63.

From 1964 to 1986 he held various positions in the French Navy – notably as commander, submarine pilot, ship’s captain, clearance diver and deep sea diver.

He retired from the Navy and joined the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER) where he was in charge of the deep-sea submersibles Nautile and Cyana.

During his time at IFREMER he led the first salvage expedition to the Titanic in 1987.

Nargeolet moved to the United States and became involved in Titanic research. He oversaw the recovery of 5,000 artifacts – including the recovery of a 20-ton section of Titanic’s hull, now on display in Las Vegas.

He lived in Kent, Connecticut for a long time before moving to Dutchess County, New York.

Nargeolet leaves behind a wife and three children, as well as his stepson, John Paschall.

The company OceanGate, which organized the doomed expedition, also paid tribute to the people on board.

The Washington-based company was founded in 2009 by aerospace engineer and entrepreneur Stockton Rush. He was among those who died.

“These men were true explorers who shared a strong spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate said in a statement.

Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada looks like a normal lake. But as the Washington Post reports, the body of water in the Toronto suburbs has unique properties that could make it a landmark in human history. Or more precisely: in the history of our planet. Scientists will decide this summer whether to designate the lake as the so-called “golden prong” – essentially the formal starting point – of a new epoch called the Anthropocene. The reason? Much happens beneath the surface of the lake, including an upper layer of water and a cold, dark deeper layer beneath which the sediment is perfectly preserved (thanks to the coincidence of geological factors described in the story). “No other body of water is known to possess this unique combination of properties, making Crawford Lake a unique indicator of global change,” the Post said.

In that sense, it’s actually a “freak of nature,” says Francine McCarthy, a geosciences professor at Ontario’s Brock University who has been studying the lake for a long time. By examining the different layers of sediment, researchers can track down telltale signs of human activity. For example, around 1950 (about the beginning of the new epoch), traces of radioactive plutonium from nuclear tests in other parts of the world showed up in the mud. The sediment also reveals increases in fossil fuel burning, emergence of acid rain, loss of microbial species, etc. But “it’s not just a doomsday story,” McCarthy says, pointing out that the sediment also shows that humans are a Reversing things can happen, like when nuclear test bans dropped plutonium levels. The International Commission on Stratigraphy will decide in a few months which of the various candidates around the world will receive the designation “Golden Spike”, part of their mission to convince other scientists that the Anthropocene Age has indeed begun. Read the full story. (Read more Anthropocene Stories.)

The oceans are warm too. Although it may seem less spectacular than the Canada fires, an unprecedented heatwave is currently hitting Atlantic waters and will result in an unseen slaughter of marine life, according to scientists. Like their terrestrial counterparts, these extreme phenomena, which are likely to repeat themselves as global warming intensifies, can last for several days or even several months and affect thousands of square kilometers.

When can one speak of a marine heat wave?

A marine heatwave occurs when seawater temperatures exceed seasonal limits for at least five days. “Many marine heat waves originate from terrestrial heat waves, but that’s not the only factor: favorable physical conditions are also required.” in Villefranche-sur-Mer and co-author of the Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). on the oceans and cryosphere, published in 2019.

Clear skies, high outside temperatures and no wind to cool the water… Here is an explosive cocktail that could lead to an ocean heatwave. In normal times, the ocean is able to regulate outside temperatures: in winter it mitigates the cold and in summer it mitigates the heat by hiding the warmth of the atmosphere in its depths. Experts estimate that since human-induced climate change began, 90% of excess heat has been trapped by the oceans. However, during an ocean heatwave, this thermostat effect is drastically reduced: surface water remains frozen and cold water at depth no longer rises.

This month of June, therefore, the Atlantic Ocean is experiencing particularly intense heat waves from southern Iceland to Africa, with temperature anomalies of more than 5°C off the British Isles. “Unheard of” in this part of the North Atlantic, where the temperature exceeds 23°C, says Daniela Schmidt, professor of geosciences at the University of Bristol, quoted by the Science Media Center, a British organization. The event commemorates last year’s historic heatwave in the Mediterranean Sea, during which the ocean temperature surpassed 30 degrees in places. A breathtaking temperature that can be reached in calm and flat areas.

Is the heat wave in the sea surprising?

Since the oceans regulate the global climate, it’s no wonder their temperature is rising. According to the United States Observation Agency (NOAA), between March and May, the average sea surface temperature reached an all-time high in 174 years of measurement, exceeding the 20th-century average by 0.83 degrees. This value is worrying, although it is below the temperature of +1.2 degrees observed on land. The oceans have a great deal of inertia: it takes more energy to heat a volume of water than air. For example, the season changes are less pronounced there than on Earth. The same applies to the consequences of climate change. “Increasing the average temperature of the oceans by a few tenths of a degree on a surface that covers 70% of the planet requires an enormous amount of energy,” says CNRS oceanographer and climatologist Jean-Baptiste Sallée. At the beginning of April, the average surface temperature of the oceans even exceeded 21°C. Unimaginable since the surveys began in 1981.

Why does this anomaly occur so early in the year?

However, the very strong anomaly currently occurring in the North Atlantic surprised researchers who did not expect to observe it so soon. As part of the El Niño natural weather phenomenon, which officially began in June and is characterized by the warming of a vast reservoir of surface water stretching from the central Pacific to the coasts of Peru and Ecuador, some of the heat buried in the deep ocean is being spewed out, leading to heat spikes. But the “Terrible Child of the Pacific,” which occurs for nine to 12 months on average every three to seven years, still seems too dormant to have any impact on the North Atlantic. “We prefer to expect an effect next spring,” Juliette Mignot, an oceanographer at the Research Institute for Development (IRD), tells AFP.

Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain the extent of this marine heatwave. For example, the researchers are thinking of a possible change in ocean currents – the large current rotating clockwise and involving the Gulf Stream has an important impact on ocean temperature. Heat from the atmosphere would interfere with global warming. Also highlighted is the reduction of windborne Saharan dust or sulfur emissions from ships, two types of aerosols that normally have a cooling effect on the atmosphere. But the question is not yet settled.

What are the consequences for biodiversity and humans?

Whatever the origin of this ocean heatwave, scientists predict it will lead to a “mass extinction” of marine species, including corals and invertebrates. “But since it happens under the sea surface, it will go unnoticed,” says Daniela Schmidt of the University of Bristol. During the heat waves in the Mediterranean, around fifty species (corals, gorgonians, sea urchins, molluscs, bivalves, posidonia, etc.) were affected by “massive deaths between the surface and 45 meters deep”, reports Jean-Pierre Gattuso.

Other species migrate more toward the poles. “The waters of Norway and Iceland, for example, are becoming richer in fish,” to the detriment of the countries in the inner-tropical zone, the researcher explains. Therefore, fisheries could be affected by these fish movements. Without forgetting that the ocean, which absorbs a quarter of the CO2 emitted by humans, could eventually lose part of its role as a carbon pump, as could terrestrial forests, carbon sinks whose health is steadily deteriorating. In fact, due to the lack of water and the high temperatures, the trees grow more slowly, which slows down the absorption of CO2.

According to experts, this loss of efficiency would have an amplifying effect on global warming. How can we reach a tipping point, those warming thresholds, beyond which parts of the climate system transition into a new, often irreversible, state that has major impacts on climate, ecosystems, and human societies? “We know that there is a potential for tipping points to be triggered between 2 and 3°C of warming,” answers Jean-Baptiste Sallée. By the end of the century, the IPCC, in its most pessimistic scenario, predicts a fiftyfold increase in the frequency of these ocean heatwaves, with episodes increasing in intensity tenfold. “But we can limit the damage,” assures Jean-Pierre Gattuso. If greenhouse gas emissions follow a trajectory compatible with the Paris Agreement, we can stop ocean warming and acidification completely. All is not lost.”