“Tara” has cast off this Sunday at 15h from the port of Lorient. The largest French polar yacht, after a world tour from 2009 to 2012 devoted to the study of plankton off to explore the Arctic Ocean, through Norway, Russia and Canada.
This new scientific adventure lead sailors and scientists from Russia to Canada, Alaska and Groeland © Screenshot
At the end of the peninsula Keroman in Lorient, before the gigantic concrete bunkers of the former base of German submarines in the Kriegsmarine oceanographic schooner, the largest polar schooner Tara French cast off Sunday at around 15h, for a complete tour of the Arctic Ocean.
The program for this mission very high latitudes conclude its study of marine planktonic ecosystems, that is to say the infinitely small (the viruses to fish larvae) behind life on earth and under climate warming. Study started during a previous expedition from 2009 to 2012.
new scientific adventure lead marine scientists and two-masted Russian in Canada, Alaska and Greenland, the Arctic is now free of ice. A journey of 25,000 km, which will last seven months.
Tara Oceans: Relive the adventure! © Taraexpeditions
sailboat borrow the famous passages Northeast (off Siberia) and Northwest (off Canada), rendered to navigation for several years during the melting of the ice in summer .
>>> See the map of shipping
“ only ocean which we have not yet explored the plankton in the previous study, is the Arctic ,” said Romain Confused, the Secretary General of Tara Expeditions and conductor mission.
“ Only two sailing yachts have so far made a complete tour of the Arctic one line e, he adds. It will be a difficult, if here and there bold navigation, amid plates drifting ice wind-driven . “
Since the previous shipment, it is proved that there is in a liter of seawater from 10 to 100 billion microorganism. And the Arctic is nothing sterile. “ This is a very important lung for the planet ,” says Chris Bowler CNRS biologist and coordinator of the mission.
“The Arctic is a rainforest species,” Chris Bowler Coordinator mission
Record melting summer sea ice
Last year, the ice was a record of historical iron. In September 2012, no longer existed 3.4 million km2 of ice against 15 million km2 in the heart of winter.
Tara will navigate the permanent update of the northern summer and go up 82 ° north latitude, on the edge of the shell egg jelly still overlap the center of the Arctic Ocean in the season.
“ It is here that occurs bloom (planktonic) ideal hunting ground where scientists aboard – oceanographers and French, Canadian and Russian marine biologists – may be the best crop of marine microorganisms , “said Romain Disturbed. “ But , he says, depending on the weather, it is a complex navigation with often reduced visibility due to fog. Last year, a huge depression had long settled in the middle of the Arctic, generating strong winds and dangerous waves “ .
Tara (36 meters) with its rounded hull aluminum, two robust engines totaling 700 HP is designed for ice, but be careful not to be imprisoned there. If this were the case, the schooner should appeal to Russian and Canadian icebreakers to clear.
Commander dream of his first iceberg
Friday and Saturday, and marine scientists have finalized the preparations. All material navigation and search still lying loose on the bridge.
the stern, the “rosette” (whole bottle trapping the plankton at different depths) and the “wet lab” where thousands of plankton samples collected will be filtered is prepared to progressively 15 scientific stations.
In the bowels of the boat, where is located the “dry lab” setting tools of high-tech microscopes, pollsters, imaging is refined electronically which will be carried out with the first expert.
“I’m looking forward to my first iceberg in front of the bow of Tara”
logistics and organization of the boat were also related to a Chinese puzzle. In late April, the young commander of Tara, Loïc Valette, 35 said laughing the Journal du Dimanche (JDD) “ crew have up to 17 members for the passage of the Northwest <. / em> “Seventeen members sleeps 14 … “ And then, unlike Polynesia not possible to sleep on deck .”
Loïc Valette has sailed the oceans of the world except the poles “ This is an exciting new adventure, he says, a unique experience for a browser, the top qualification offshore . ” “ I’m looking forward to my first iceberg in front of the bow of Tara. I dreamed, child, reading the stories of the first explorers of the frozen planet ” .
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