The silent dying beneath turquoise water

Anyone arriving in French Polynesia for the first time is greeted by a landscape that almost seems like an optical illusion. The sea shimmers in blue-green as if someone had poured color into liquid glass. Rays glide past beneath the boats. Turtles slowly rise from the depths like ancient beings from another time. And somewhere behind the coral belt, a dolphin jumps out of the water as if to personally confirm the myth of the last paradise. Yet exactly where postcard idyll begins, marine researchers have been registering a quiet ...