After three years of travelling the Pacific Ocean, the scientific schooner Tara will be back in Lorient, its home port. The coral reef scientific expedition led a major campaign to enrich the database on marine biodiversity.
The schooner left in 2016, and will have spent 29 months sailing, covered 100,000 km, made 70 stops in 30 countries, and studied 40 archipelagos during 2677 dives. Three years during which the scientific team will have studied the Panama Canal, the Japanese archipelago, New Zealand or China, taking a total of 36,000 échantillons?! It is the largest campaign ever undertaken on coral reefs.
For three years, the teams studied 40 sites, looking for 3 species of corals, 1 species of reef fish, while associating the surrounding plankton. The objective was to unravel the mystery of the invisible biodiversity of the reefs.
Tara will be back on Saturday 27 October in Lorient, Morbihan. And for this comeback in style, everyone is invited to form the Tara armada. One-day or longtime sailors are invited to gather in front of the island of Groix, off the coast of Lorient, to accompany Tara on the last few nautical miles to the Cité de la Voile.
Throughout the week following the return of the scientific teams, animations, conferences, projections and visits of the boat will be organized along the quays of the Cité Éric Tabarly.
