.jpg) SchoonerTara. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name |
|
| Builder | SFCNVilleneuve-la-Garenne |
| In service | 1989 |
| Homeport | Lorient,France |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Schooner |
| Displacement | 130 t (130long tons; 290,000 lb) |
| Length | 36 m (118 ft) |
Tara is a French sailing ship used in a series of oceanic research expeditions.[2]
Tara is a 36-metre (118 ft) aluminum-hulledschooner, formerly namedAntarctica and thenSeamaster.[3]
Designed by the naval architects Olivier Petit and Luc Bouvet, built in France on the initiative ofJean-Louis Étienne, doctor and explorer, in 1989. The schoonerAntarctica was used from 1991 to 1996 by Jean-Louis Étienne for scientific expeditions inAntarctica, at the Erebus volcano and then wintering at Spitzberg.
Under its former nameSeamaster, it was owned byPeter Blake, who was shot and killed in 2001 by pirates while sailingSeamaster on theAmazon River.[3] Following Blake's death, the yacht was bought byEtienne Bourgois, renamed Tara and dedicated to environmental expeditions.[4]
The polar schoonerTara set out to drift in the ice for approximately two years from its first departure, late in August 2006. The expedition met with interest in theoceanography community, especially in the context of theInternational Polar Year (2007–2008). DubbedTara Arctic, this voyage ended on February 23, 2008. It was part of the international DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies) program.
In 2009,Tara started a new expedition, dubbedTara Oceans.[5] It travelled around the world until 2013 to study CO2 capture bymarine microorganisms such asplankton on a global scale. The costs of the expedition were €3 million per year, all from private funds. The expedition was primarily funded by the French fashion designeragnès b.,[6] however, it was a collaborative effort between the Tara Expeditions Foundation, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and 17 other international partner institutions.[7] It was able to collect more than 35,000 planktonic samples from 210 stations in every major oceanic region, which through analyses revealed more than 40 million genes, most of which were new to science.[5][8]
The samples were analyzed using a combination of DNA sequencing and microscopy. Of the 40+ million genes identified, the two biggest match domains were 58.8% bacteria and 5.4% viruses. 27.7% were not able to be matched with any currently known domains of life.[9] This fact underscores the vast unknown biological components of the world's oceans.
In addition to uncovering unknown marine biodiversity, theTara Oceans Expedition helped us to understand the role of marine microbes in the global ecosystem, address the impacts of climate change on marine life and improve ocean conservation efforts.
One of the other goals ofTara Oceans was to allow open access archives of both raw and validated data sets to scientists around the world as quickly as possible.[1] Links to all of the data sets can be found athttps://www.ebi.ac.uk/services/tara-oceans-data. As part of the expedition's public outreach efforts, a short series of documentary videos calledThe Plankton Chronicles which merged science and art was created by theVillefranche-sur-Mer Marine Station.[10]
Tara Mediterranean was the next expedition that took place over seven months in 2014. It traversed the entire Mediterranean Sea with the goal better understanding the sources, transport, distribution and characteristics of surface floating plastic.[11] One of the major discoveries was that of the 2000 samples taken on the cruise at 300 different sites, all of the samples contained plastic fragments.[12]
Tara Pacific began in May 2016. During this latest voyageTara studiedcoral reefs andplastic pollution.
Between 2020 and 2023,Tara traveled the South Atlantic, along the coasts of South America and West Africa, and as far as Antarctica,[13] to study the ocean microbiome and its interactions with the climate and pollution.[14][15] The Microbiome Mission has been endorsed by theUNESCO Oceanographic Commission for contributing to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.[16]