Archive Activities

Adventures in the Southern Seas: The Tara Oceans Conference

2011-03-06 20:39

What: Tara Oceans Maritime Conference
Where: Yacht Club de Monaco
When: 7pm, Wednesday 16 March 2011
Entry: free on registration (optional dinner at €45 per person)
Contact: Tel: +377 93 10 63 00 or email accueil@ycm.org
RSVP by March 10 2011

For the last four years, the Tara Expedition has been exploring the maritime environment of world's major seas.From 2007-8 it explored the extraordinary ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean, to coincide with International Polar Year; and in September 2009 it set off again in honour of the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species to follow in the wake of Charles Darwin's Beagle.

Tara Oceans is a specially designed 118 ft. aluminum schooner, sponsored by the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and other marine research institutions.  Its purpose is to conduct surveys of marine ecosystems during a three-year-long 100,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe, culminating in 2012.

It continues to be a huge but immensely rewarding undertaking. The Principality has been represented on board not only by the Yacht Club de Monaco - one of whose young members, Charles Terrins, originally joined the ship in 2007 - but also by Didier Zoccola and Stephanie Reynaud of the Scientific Centre of Monaco, who embarked in Djibouti along with Alain Giese (technical director of the Yacht Club's flagship Tuiga), to investigate corals.

Following the Tara Arctic Expedition, the boat set off again for the southern seas in 2009 from its home port of Lorient, France, and is currently about to set sail from Valparaiso en route to Easter Island.

At the the end of January 2011, Bernard d'Alessandri, Secretary-General of the YCM, joined Alain Giese and Tara’s crew in Ushuaia to live out a human and scientific adventure over the course of nearly a month, between Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. 'The Tara project is above all about people, and its aims are completely shared by the Yacht Club de Monaco' says Etienne Bourgois, President of the Tara Fund and co-director of Tara Oceans. 

Now, as part of its collaboration with Tara Oceans, the YCM in collaboration with the Oceanographic Museum and the Naval Museum of Monaco is pleased to invite you to find out much more about this fascinating expedition at a special Maritime Conference on Wednesday 16 March, 2011 at 7pm in the clubhouse of the YCM.

"Reliving the experience of a month of sailing in the Southern Ocean aboard the Tara" will be a meeting of minds between sailors and scientists, chaired by Etienne Bourgois, President of the Tara Foundation and Co-Director of Tara Oceans, and Bernard d'Alessandri, Secretary General of the YCM.



Following the conference, to continue the exchange of views and topics, a dinner-debate will take place in the presence of Christian Sardet, Researcher in Biology at the Oceanological Observatory of Villefranche-sur-Mer CNRS, UMPC; Alain Giese, Head of Logistics of the sailing vessel Tuiga; and Monegasque scientists participating in the Tara Oceans project. Participation at the dinner debate is by reservation only, as there are limited places available.