For 6-12 year-olds
© C. Roussey - Fonds Tara
N°2
The Tara Oceans Expedition has now been running for nearly a year.
Come aboard and share the adventure with us!
What is the purpose
of the Tara Oceans Expedition?
THE SCHOONER «TARA» IS SAILING AROUND THE WORLD FOR 3 YEARS
TO DISCOVER NEW SPECIES... INSTEAD OF STUDYING KNOWN MARINE MAMMALS OR FISH,
TARA IS WORKING ON THE INVISIBLE, LITTLE-KNOWN WORLD OF PLANKTON
There are billions
of microscopic living
species in the sea, which
is an enormous variety
of living things.
Plankton are also very
important for life on Earth,
because they produce
over 50% of the oxygen
we breathe, and they
capture nearly 70% of the
carbon dioxide that we
produce. They were the
first living things to appear
on Earth, so in every sense
of the word, they are our
ancestors!
They allow us to breathe
and they also maintain the
climate of our planet
in balance. These
extraordinary little
creatures are very sensitive
to global warming,
so it is essential for us
to study them in order
to protect them.
© C. Roussey - Fonds Tara
That is the purpose of the
Tara Oceans Expedition
A three year
expedition
around the world
© be-poles - Fonds Tara
-
During the Summer 2010 Tara stopped for
a month in Cape Town, South Africa.
In March 2011
Tara will be off the coast of Chile. In
September 2011 Tara will call at Auckland,
New Zealand. In March 2012 Tara will be
sailing off the coast of Japan. After the
North-West Passage Tara will sail along
the East Coast of the United States
in September 2012.
Then Tara will return to France
in the autumn of 2012.
Tara’s ports of call
Her route was decided by three factors:
— areas of scientific interest
— t he seasons in the Northern
and Southern hemispheres
— t he prevailing winds, Tara is
a sailing boat after all!
how was the route chosen
© D.Sauveur - Fonds Tara
Why is plankton called
plankton?
The term comes from the Greek
«planktos», which means «to drift».
Plankton is composed of animals,
«plants», viruses and bacteria that drift
with the ocean currents.
Naël,
the captain’s son
He is 7 years old and his father, Hervé, has been one of Tara’s captains for the past 3 years.
Hervé was the captain during Tara’s arctic expedition. Naël follows his father’s
progress from Île d’Yeu, the island off the French Atlantic coast
where he lives, and joins him on the boat whenever he can.
Can you tell us where he is
right now?
He is in Cape Town. In my bedroom
I have a big map
of the world, and I plot the boat’s
course every day.
What do you think of your
daddy’s job?
I’m very proud that my daddy
is the captain of Tara. I think he’s
lucky to be able to sail all around
the world to help scientists.
Even if I think he’s lucky away for a
long time, he always comes home,
and I can travel too. I went to see
him this summer in South Africa.
What do you have to do to become
Tara’s captain?
You have to be in the merchant navy and have a captain’s
license. But that isn’t all: to be Tara’s captain you have to
be adventurous, be fascinated by science, enjoy having
responsibilities and not be afraid of not having much sleep.
Hervé
- Fonds Tara
© be-poles - Fonds Tara
Have you ever sailed
aboard Tara?
Yes, I once left Lorient for the
Mediterranean, and at Christmas
we went through the Suez Canal.
I love being on board, giving a hand
with the ropes, helping the crew
and meeting lots of people.
How do you get news from
your daddy?
He sends us emails every day,
and I send him messages.
He calls me every week, especially
when he is in port. I often send
him photos and tell him what
I have done at school and at home.
© J. Girardot
Can you explain a little
about what your daddy does?
My daddy is the captain of Tara, and
he sails the boat with the crew so
that the scientists can study the
seas and oceans and the plankton.
Illustration of Tara by Benjamin Flao - Mars 2010 on board
What is the lifespan
of coral?
The lifespan of coral is far greater
than that of the giant Galapagos
tortoises, which live for over 200
years. Some experts say that some
coral colonies may be several
hundred or even several thousand
years old.
Tara’s partners
Are there any dangerous
corals?
Corals are not dangerous but
they can be very sharp.
However, there is a type of hydrozoan that lives in the same
environment as coral, called «fire
coral». If you touch, it can sting
more fiercely than a jellyfish!
Apart from giant starfishes
are there any other fish
or sea creatures that eat
coral?
Parrot fish, angel fish, sea slugs,
crabs and some big hermit crabs
(when they are fully grown and very
hungry) enjoy eating coral.
A real travelling
laboratory
To make the Tara Oceans Expedition possible, the boat had to be refit in the boatyard for 4 months. A
wet laboratory was installed on deck, one of the cabins was converted into a dry lab. BELOW DECK, A
PHOTOGRAPHY and VIDEO UNIT WAS SET UP ON THE TABLE OF THE SMALL SALOON AND A POWERFUL GANTRY WAS
FITTED TO IMMERSE THE ROSETTE AND PLANKTON NETS TO A DEPTH OF 2,000 METRES
1- The pump ensures that water is
collected without harming its tiny
inhabitants.
2
7
2- Seawater is passed through nets to
sort the organisms out according to
their size.
3- The rosette is a system of bottles
arranged in a circle. Automatic
systems ensure the bottles open and
close at different depths.
1
4- Plankton filters are like enormous
butterfly nets but catch plankton
instead.
6
5- The dry laboratory is equipped
with devices that enable new species
of plankton to be identified and
classified. For example, there are
200,000 known species of protists
(single-celled living creatures) but it
is thought that there may be millions
more waiting to be discovered! This
high-tech equipment enables us to
observe the incredible shapes and
colours of these living creatures.
5
6- Plankton are also the stars of the
high definition photo and video unit,
and sometimes give an impressive
show! They can be seen dancing,
fighting or eating each other...
7- There are 2 large fridges in the
forward hold: they are the ship’s
treasure chests because they hold our
precious plankton specimens.
1
© C. Roussey - Fonds Tara
4
*
* aboard Tara, the week begins on Saturday
© C. Roussey - Fonds Tara
Water, energy and waste aboard Tara:
take care of your environment
© C. Roussey - Fonds Tara
At sea, Tara is like the crew’s own little planet where resources,
water, energy and food are necessarily limited. It is important that they take care
not to pollute the sea or the atmosphere with the ship’s waste. On a boat
it is easy to understand the problems caused by too much waste.
© C. Roussey - Fonds Tara
Why can’t you throw
plastic bags into the
sea?
Plastic bags pollute the sea
and can suffocate fish.
They take between 100 and
1,000 years to decompose.
Eric Karsenti and Etienne Bourgois, co-directors of Tara Oceans
This new expedition left Lorient in
September 2009 for a 3 year voyage.
The aim of Tara Oceans is to better
understand the plankton that populate
the oceans, their diversity and the role
they play in the world’s climate.
Without plankton we couldn’t eat,
breathe... or even exist. Half of the
oxygen we breathe is produced by
plankton. The Tara Oceans expedition
is composed of men and women of
different nationalities, specialities,
languages and ages, all working
together. Together, they share
the pleasure of exploring
the world through science.
Their love of the sea and of our planet
makes them work hard to bring back all
the information that you will read in this
magazine, and motivates them to share
their fantastic global adventure with you.
Come aboard and share the adventure!
Tara surfing on plankton during a massive blooming
of microscopic algae. The algae proliferate on
the surface of the sea and illuminate it, giving
the impression that Tara is sailing on an ocean
of fluorescent light.
© J. Girardot
- Fonds Tara
Tara Junior Magazine is back!
Just like the previous Tara expedition to
the Arctic, the Tara Oceans expedition
is a scientific adventure that involves all
the inhabitants of our beautiful planet,
and especially young people who are
concerned about its state of health. Tara
has left the Arctic wilderness to study
plankton, micro-organisms which are
just as important for the planet as the
Poles!
© C. Roussey - Fonds Tara
Tara Junior Club
Become a future explorer
with TARA JUNIOR CLUB
Join Tara Junior Club and follow Tara on her latest
mission. You’ll find out about life on board and
learn about the work of the scientists. The Club
is a fantastic way to take part in the Tara Oceans
expedition! The newsletter is full of interviews,
stories about the boat, experiments you can carry
out at home, and things you can do for the environment.
If you want to join the Tara Junior Club
and follow Tara at school, please go to :
www.tarajunior.org
Follow Tara at school
Why not get your school to follow Tara too? We’ve set
up a special programme just for schools so mention
it to your teachers, they can find out more on the
website.
Tara crew in Djibouti
J.Girardot/Fonds Tara
WEBSITES
www.ozzyozone.org
Ozzy and Zoe explain how the
ozone layer works. How does it
protect us from the sun’s rays?
What can we do to protect it?
BOOKS
Hoot
This ecological thriller tells the
story of Roy Eberhardt, who meets
Mullet Fingers, a young man trying
to prevent a sinister pancake factory PR man from developing a plot
of land inhabited by a family of owls
(protected species). With the help
of alligators and rattlesnakes, Mullet sabotages the site. Roy decides
to give him a helping hand. By Carl
Hiaasen.
For 10 year-olds and above.
Treasure Island Jim opens a pirate’s chest and discovers a chart
showing the hiding-place of a fabulous treasure hidden on a desert
island by the infamous Captain
Flint’s gang. With the help of Dr.
Livesey and Squire Trelawney, they
buy a schooner, the Hispaniola,
and sail off to find the treasure.
During the voyage, Jim overhears
a conversation between members
of the crew and learns that most of
the sailors are members of Flint’s
gang. Mutiny is brewing and the
treasure is at stake. By Robert
Louis Stevenson. For 10 year-olds
and above.
EXHIBITION
Tara Oceans at the Cité des
Sciences (Paris) until
october 2010
A playful exhibition about the Tara
expedition and the microscopic fauna that inhabits the world’s oceans.
The exhibition comprises three
main themes:
- Tara, a research vessel
- The expedition, the route, Tara in
real time
- Scientific work on board
Free entry
www.cite-sciences.fr
Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie
30, avenue Corentin-Cariou 75019 Paris.
Metro Porte de la Villette / Cité des
sciences
MOVIES
TO THE HEART
OF THE CLIMATE MACHINE
This film, produced in extreme
conditions, tells the story of daily
life on the Tara Arctic expedition.
We find out how the crew,
prisoners of the ice, struggled
constantly against the cold and the
long periods of night and day.
In addition to the adventure, the
documentary explains how the
scientific work discovered that
the world’s climate was in a far
more alarming situation than had
been expected. A documentary
by Emmanuel Roblin and Thierry
Ragobert. Coproduction: ARTE
France, MC4, Tarawaka.
Naël aboard Tara in December 2009 - Photos: www.ronangladu.com
Free Newspaper published by Tara Oceans. Fonds de dotation Tara 12 rue Dieu 75010 Paris, France - +33 1 53 38 44 89 - [email protected].
Photos: Tara Oceans Artistic direction and layout: www.be-poles.com Legal representative and editor: Étienne Bourgois.
Coordination: Eloïse Fontaine, Rachel Moreau, Magali Puiseux, Marion Lauters and Sandra Da Costa. Illustrations : Christine Roussey, Benjamin Flao (page 6)
Sébastien Beauvilain, Marine Ricardou and Romain Laprade. Scientific coordinator: Éric Karsenti. Printer: DDBZ, Bidart France. Published and legally registered: 2nd May 2010.