The schooner "Tara" returns to explore the impact of pollution on European coasts

The schooner "Tara" docked in Lorient, its home port (illustration image). © RFI / Agnès Rougier

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3 min

From north to south, in different seasons, at all scales, the Tara Europa scientific expedition aims to analyze and understand the whole functioning of the immense diversity of life on European coasts.

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The boat loaded with new analysis equipment, supported on land by a mobile laboratory, leaves the port of Lorient this Sunday, April 2. 68,000 km of European coasts rich in life, strong in their economy, but also sensitive to the many pollutants that man dumps there... Complex ecosystems between land and sea that the mission of the schooner Taraand mobile laboratories of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) aim to decipher.

« The visible world is the tip of the iceberg »

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One of the goals is to be able to understand the impact of pollution, climate change, everything that man does to damage these regions, says Edith Heard, director of the EMBL. Then it's also unique because it's only today that we have the technologies to really look at ecosystems at all scales. Ten years ago, this project was not possible.

Climate surveys, genetic and behavioral studies on fauna and flora, and thousands of components studied: pesticides, drug residues or hydrocarbons. The experiments are intended to be as wide as possible because there is still much to discover, explains oceanographer Colomban de Vargas, scientific director of the Tara Foundation expedition on the ship: "We now know that most of the biodiversity is actually invisible, and that all the visible world around us that has been studied by all the great naturalists, That's the tip of the iceberg," he says. We do not yet know the essentials of the living, which is still quite substantial.

A journey worthy of Darwin's

For Edith Heard this voyage promises to be as important as that of Charles Darwin on his ship, the Beagle, between 1831 and 1836, which allowed the illustrious naturalist to develop the theory of evolution. "I hope we'll discover organizations or communities that we didn't even suspect," she enthuses. For me, it is really a journey of discovery that will give us a new vision of life on earth. It also really means understanding which ecosystems are most valuable and most at risk because, when you lose an ecosystem, it is very difficult to find. So, for us, it's very important to capture the ecosystems that are still whole and rich, and to be able to measure which organisms are really the most important to protect these ecosystems. We can therefore allow not only the planet to be healthy, but man to continue to exploit it as we want and we know how to do. It's ambitious, but I think it's extremely realistic. We all hope to be new Darwins.

With this new knowledge, the researchers aim to revolutionize scientific knowledge of European coastlines. The Tara Europa mission is due to end in mid-2024.

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Read on on the same topics:

• Environment
• Oceans
• Pollution
• France
• Research
• Biodiversity