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Tara Oceans project is key to understanding the environment
2010-01-17 20:38
On 13 January the Yacht Club de Monaco, in collaboration with the Oceanographic and Naval museums, hosted a conference on the maritime environment to kick off the UN's International Year of Biodiversity.
The centrepiece was a paper presented by Francesca Benzoni - scientific coordinator of the Tara Oceans project with a special interest in corals - entitled 'From Tara Arctic to Tara Oceans'.
This project is based on the work of the famous schooner, which gathered data in 2007–2008 related to changing conditions in the Arctic. Now the same boat, following in the wake of Charles Darwin's Beagle, will explore the maritime environment of the world's major oceans.
'The Tara project is above all about people, and its aims are completely shared by the Yacht Club de Monaco' explained Etienne Bourgois, President of the Tara Fund and co-director of Tara Oceans.
The Principality is represented on board not only by the Yacht Club, one of whose young members, Charles Terrins, joined the ship in 2007; but also by Didier Zoccola and Stephanie Reynaud of the Scientifc Centre of Monaco, who will soon embark in Djibouti along with Alain Giese (responsible for the Yacht Club's flagship, Tuiga), to investigate corals. All three will serve as deck officers on Tara from 13 February to 22 March this year.
The conference was chaired by HSH Prince Albert II. Also present were Odile Remik-Adim, Ambassador of France to Monaco, His Excellency Bernard Fautrier, Vice-President of the Albert II Foundation, Laurent Stefanini, French Ambassador for the Environment, Jean-Charles Sacotte, Chairman of the Board of INDEMER, Professor Patrick Rampal and Mr. Denis German respectively President and Director of the Scientific Centre of Monaco, and Professor Raoul Caruba, Chairman of the Symposium of Water
Eva Esztergar