Boat International - February 2016

http://www.boatinternational.com | February 2016

F

ew people know the ocean the way
RomainTroubléknowsit.Forastart,
thissonofanOlympicandAmerica’s
Cupsailorgrewuponboatsandalso
racedintheAmerica’sCup.Heisnowsecretary
generalofTaraExpeditions,theFrench
non-profit organisation that is rapidly revealing
the secrets of the deep.
Tarawassetupbyhisaunt,thefashion
designer Agnès b, and his uncle Etienne
Bourgois,in2003.Sincethenits36metre
aluminiumschoonerofthesamename,
launched in 1989, has sailed nearly half
amillionkilometresladenwithscientists,
equipment and good intentions.
Hermostrecentexpedition,TaraOceans,
collectedmorethan35,000samplesofmarine
plankton between 2009 and 2013 to study what
ishappeningtothesecrucialoxygen-giving,
climate-controllingorganisms.Itwilltake
10yearstorevealthefullstorybutthefirst
resultswerepublishedlastyearand,initially
at least, the study sets a global baseline to
evaluatetheimpactofclimatechangeonocean
life.About40milliongeneshavebeenrevealed,
thevastmajoritybeingnewtoscience.

ON BOARD

Troublé at sea

But Romain Troublé and his Tara

Foundation are finding solutions

Troublé is excited – by the technological

progress as much as the research itself. “At the

beginning of the project there was no way we

could manage so many samples, so much

information,” he says. “But by the end this was

possible because of the progress of the

technology. In that time the price and the time

of doing the genomics has been divided by

10,000, which is completely incredible.”

Troublé says it’s the most important work

Tara has undertaken so far. “Scientifically, yes,

by far,” he says. “The Arctic drift in 2007 to 2008

was one of the most challenging expeditions

we can do. Drifting on thick ice for 500 days

in such a remote place in such dark times of the

year, over winter, this was such a challenging

project. But in terms of science, plankton is

the most up to speed and the most important.”

Tara Arctic studied the atmosphere up to

an altitude of 2,000 metres and the Arctic

Ocean to a depth of more than 4,000 metres.

Initial conclusions confirm climatologists’

predictions that summer ice will disappear

completely in the next 10 to 15 years.

Next on Troublé ’s and Tara’s agenda is

coral. For the next two years Ta ra will study

the coral reefs of the Pacific, and Southeast

Asia in particular, educating locals about its

importance. “We’re going to spend two blocks

of two or three months in Southeast Asia,

sharing the science and the importance of

these ecosystems for mankind,” says Troublé.

“We’ ll be doing this with the local press, with

the kids and local politicians.”

Troublé is also calling on superyacht owners

to help in studying the ocean. “We should look

for a new, complementary way of looking at

the ocean, by engaging the owners who are

crossing the ocean for their leisure time,

to collect samples and data. So long as the

downstream research work is planned before

hand, it would be really useful.

“We need this. The ocean is so big and this is

why we don’t know the ocean today. When you

see the budgets of governments getting smaller

and smaller, this could be interesting and could

make sense for these guys who travel around

the world. It would be a win-win situation.”

Owners who are

crossing the ocean for

their leisure time could

collect samples and data.

It would be really useful

Tara at work

in the Arctic.

Right: Troublé

Troublé and

Tara’s founder,

his aunt Agnès b.

Right: plankton

in all their glory

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