![Sampling devices and working areas on-board SV Tara](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Sampling_devices_and_working_areas_on-board_SV_Tara.webp)
The ''Tara'' expedition is an oceanic research expedition.
The boat
''Tara'' is a 36-metre aluminum-hulled
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
, formerly named "Antarctica" then "Seamaster".
Designed by the naval architects Olivier Petit and Luc Bouvet, built in France on the initiative of
Jean-Louis Étienne
Jean-Louis Étienne (born 9 December 1946) is a French doctor, explorer and scientist. He is well known for his Arctic explorations, where he was the first man to reach the North pole alone in 1986, and his Antarctic explorations, including the f ...
, medical explorer, in 1989 the schooner Antarctica was used from 1991 to 1996 by Jean-Louis Étienne for scientific expeditions in Antarctica, at the Erebus volcano and then wintering at Spitzberg. Under its former name, it was owned by
Peter Blake, who was shot and killed in 2001 by pirates while sailing ''Seamaster'' on the
Amazon River
The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile.
The headwaters of t ...
.
Following Blake's death, the yacht was bought by Etienne Bourgois, renamed Tara and dedicated to environmental expeditions.
Expeditions
The polar schooner ''Tara'' 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 the
oceanography
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...
community, especially in the context of the
International Polar Year
The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred ...
(2007–2008). Dubbed ''Tara'' 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.
![Tara - Brest 2008-3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Tara_-_Brest_2008-3.jpg)
In 2009, ''Tara'' started a new expedition, dubbed ''Tara'' Oceans.
It travelled around the world until 2013 to study CO
2 capture by
marine microorganisms
Marine microorganisms are defined by their habitat as microorganisms living in a marine environment, that is, in the saltwater of a sea or ocean or the brackish water of a coastal estuary. A microorganism (or microbe) is any microscopic livin ...
such as
plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...
. The costs of the expedition were €3 million per year, all from private funds. The expedition was primarily funded by the French fashion designer
agnès b.
agnès b. (born Agnès Andrée Marguerite Troublé, 1941) is a French fashion designer known for her self-named brand, which includes fashion and film interests.
Life and early career
Agnès had mixed twins at 19 and she separated from their ...
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.
''Tara'' Mediterranean was the next expedition, followed by ''Tara'' Pacific beginning in May 2016. During this latest voyage ''Tara'' is studying coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
Co ...
s and plastic pollution
Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...
.
See also
* ''Fram'' (ship)
*Georgy Sedov
Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov (russian: Гео́ргий Я́ковлевич Седо́в; – ) was a Russian Arctic explorer.
Born in the village of Krivaya Kosa of Taganrog district (now Novoazovskyi Raion, Donetsk Oblast) in a fisherman's fam ...
expedition
* Soviet and Russian staffed drifting ice stations
References
External links
Official site
*
* (A Lecture by Eric Karsenti)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tara Expedition
Schooners
Arctic expeditions
1989 ships
21st century in the Arctic
2006 in science
2007 in science
Ships attacked and captured by pirates
Research vessels of France