Tara schooner moored at the port of Lorient.
FRED TANNEAU /
AFP
5
The schooner Tara scientific cast off Saturday from the port of Lorient, followed by an armada of small boats, under a slightly overcast sky, for unprecedented two-year expedition in the Pacific ocean dedicated to the study of coral reefs and their evolution.
Several hundred people attended the apparatus shortly before 7:00 p.m. of aluminum sailboat, in a festive atmosphere with Polynesian dances and music, a brass band, concerts and events around the corals organized by the Oceanopolis Brest.
This is the first multidisciplinary study taking into account the coral -which has about 1,400 species différentes- in the community and interaction with the high seas. “This expedition will be a premiere at the study of corals in its scope in terms of space,” noted before departure Serge Planes, scientific expedition leader and director of research at CNRS.
The ship is 36 meters long, 10 wide and 27 mast height, must join initially Groix to be blessed, and his crew, by the Rector parish Breton island, as is the tradition every shipment starting from the time of the French East India Company which was based in Lorient.
from East to West and North to South, the schooner then travel the Pacific ocean to discover the diversity of coral and better understand particular its ability to adapt to climate change and human activities.
While coral reefs cover less than 0.2% of the ocean surface, they meet nearly 30% of marine biodiversity known to date.
“One kilometer square of coral reefs, it is the equivalent of all biodiversity found on the coasts of the French metropolis, “noted Serge Planes, explaining that the health of these reefs is crucial to species diversity that they house, but also for humanity.
‘highly threatened ecosystem
Studying such ecosystem Pacific-wide and represents a major opportunity for the international scientific community, so that much of the coral reefs -véritables indicators of the health of océans- tends to disappear in recent years.
“it’s a threatened ecosystem,” mainly due to the fact that it is an ecosystem coastal, said Serge Planes, adding that over 20% of coral reefs are already permanently deleted due in port facilities.
From the Panama Canal to the islands of Japan, and New Zealand to China, Tara will travel nearly 100,000 km through September 2018 and his return to Lorient, her home port tie.
on board the schooner, peppered with measuring instruments, six sailors and an interdisciplinary team of scientists on a “cross” approach. They will be in the final 70 scientists take turns at sea for two years. Then follow ten years of operation of the collected information.
“The boat is fully available to scientists”, welcomed Etienne Bourgois, President of Tara Expeditions Foundation, born in March and recognized public utility by the state. “It is trying to advance science with the international scientific community and the guts of each,” said he said.
The program for these two years of shipment, the leadership of the CNRS. some 70 stops, 40 archipelagos analyzed 45,000 samples and to discover the hidden coral diversity
This will be the 11th expedition led by the schooner, which has already traversed the Arctic to study the ice, sailed the seas of the globe to discover the plankton or crossed the Mediterranean to measure the impact of pollution plastics.
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