June, 18th 2009 - Presentation of Tara Océan

A press conference will be held on Thursday, June 18, at 8h45 at the headquarters of Agnes b. to present the international scientific expedition, “Tara Oceans”, in which Genoscope is a participant.

>Teaser of Tara oceans
>Genoscope projects on Tara Oceans
>Tara Oceans website

TARA OCEANS : A UNIQUE EXPEDITION

On 4th September 2009, the Tara expedition ship will leave Lorient, her home port, for a fabulous 3-year journey around the world to study the ocean ecosystems, unknown but still necessary for life on Earth. The oceans cover 2/3 of our planet and produce half the oxygen we breathe through plankton and micro-organisms still unknown to mankind. The expedition will attempt to provide information on this unexplored universe and to answer the most pressing issues on the protection of our planet.
 
 

The Tara Oceans expedition will bring together an international team of scientists, but also of sailors and journalists, whose task will be to collect data that will be analysed by a consortium of international laboratories and institutes. The goal is to create a database that will combine the already existing knowledge and the discoveries made during the expedition. More than 12 research areas will involve oceanographers, biologists, geneticists, and physicists from the most prestigious worldwide laboratories. 50 laboratories and institutes will be mobilised in 15 countries. Thus, more than 100 scientists will be directly involved in the expedition. Tara will therefore make 60 calls in 50 countries around the world, and it will travel 150,000 km (practically, half of the Earth to Moon journey!).

Through this new adventure, Tara Expeditions marks out a new programme and pursues its objectives:

• Proposing to scientists an outstanding observation and experimentation platform. Tara Oceans will be equipped with the most advanced technologies in terms of observations and analyses; to the measurement and sampling equipment an imaging platform will be added that will allow observing these invisible to the naked eye beings that populate the oceans. Tara will lay the foundations for an exhaustive description of marine ecosystems.
• Promoting awareness to the general public and particularly to children the environmental issues and provide them new scientific knowledge. To achieve this goal, TV programmes, documentaries, publications, exhibitions as well as educational activities and animations within schools will be distributed during the expedition.

Just like previous expeditions, the schooner will sail under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

>Genoscope projects on Tara Oceans
>Tara Oceans website

Video : teaser of Tara Oceans