A crew of adventurers will take to the high seas on a decade-long mission inspired by explorer Jacques Cousteau to examine the world's most important underwater treasures.

Swiss-based marine conservation group the Antinea Foundation, behind the project, will connect their old-fashioned adventure to a modern audience via the internet in a bid to boost interest in the seas.

The "Changing Oceans" expedition will launch from the French port of Marseille and aims to explore some 100 marine reserves over 10 years and raise awareness about protection of the seas.

Scientists, divers and camera crews will step aboard a converted World War II ship "Fleur de Passion" (Passion Flower) and head out to sea on 11 July.

More than 1000 people will collaborate on the huge project.

"The sea needs to be protected," Cousteau's former right-hand man, Albert Falco, said at an expedition launch event in Geneva.

"The real danger is man... we're the sharks," said Falco, now 82 and one of the patrons of the expedition.

Cousteau was a renowned French naval officer who dedicated himself to the study of the sea and all forms of life in water.

Antinea hopes to fire the public's imagination by transmitting underwater images and scientific discoveries into people's homes via the internet.

Real-time link-ups with divers and three-dimensional mapping on Google Earth are among methods planned.

The team also hopes to place a camera on a blue shark off the French coast to observe its behaviour.

The west Mediterranean will be the explorers' target at the start of their 10-year adventure.

Sites they plan to investigate include the Pelagos whale and dolphin sanctuary off Italy and France, the coasts of Corsica, Croatia and the Eolian Islands.

The Antinea Foundation, backed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, promotes the protection and exploration of the underwater world.

The group says 80 percent of life on Earth is found in the sea, but just 10 to 20 percent of the oceans have been explored.

The seas are also natural regulators of the air we breathe and of the Earth's climate, yet many marine specialists point to the depletion of fish stocks as just one sign that the marine environment is being destroyed.

AFP

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