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On December 14, 2025, the schooner Tara left the port of Lorient for a long-term expedition to Southeast Asia. Two years of scientific navigation to analyze the resilience of corals in a zone as fragile as it is strategic: the Coral Triangle. Here are the main challenges and technical realities of this oceanographic mission, presented in video by Romain Troublé, the mission's director.
A long-term scientific mission combining navigation and applied research
Tara Coral 2026-2028 is the fourteenth campaign led by the Tara Ocean Foundation. On board, a team of 16 people, including scientists specialized in reef ecosystems. The onboard program combines long-distance navigation with cutting-edge scientific protocols: environmental DNA sampling, in situ observations, measurement of physico-chemical parameters and monitoring of thermal stress.
The planned stages, with Japan as the first, will provide logistical and scientific support for the reconstruction of a detailed map of coral resilience.
Coral Triangle: an overheated natural laboratory
Straddling six countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomons and Timor-Leste), the Coral Triangle alone accounts for 30% of the world's reefs. What's in it for researchers? It offers exceptional biodiversity, but also unexpected signals of biological resistance.
Faced with rising surface temperatures, some reefs are showing an above-average ability to survive. Tara aims to understand the factors responsible for this adaptation: genetics, temperature, currentology, microbial interactions... all hypotheses that will be tested.
A schooner designed for onboard science
Tara is a mobile platform designed for scientific work at sea. This 36-metre two-master is designed to tackle the world's seas, with a stability adapted to on-board handling. Its onboard laboratories, in particular the equipment for filtering and analyzing micro-organisms, are used to process samples without delay.
The vessel is also equipped for open-ocean collection: plankton nets, CTD probes, sampling tanks and bathymetric mapping systems. A configuration that makes the schooner autonomous, even in areas far from ports.
Tara Coral: not only an expedition, but also a scientific outreach project
In addition to biological analyses and data reports, Tara Coral is also involved in a popularization initiative. The departure from Lorient was accompanied by a weekend of free events at the Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly. Conferences, children's workshops, screenings and round-table discussions brought together the curious, families and enthusiasts alike.
Artistic performances even punctuated the departure, mixing contemporary circus and poetic evocation of corals, as a nod to the shifting forms of living reefs.
Logistics prepared two years in advance
Preparing a two-year scientific mission is no easy task. The Tara Océan Foundation took nearly twenty-four months to build partnerships, plan stopovers, secure sampling authorizations and adapt the schooner to the constraints of the mission. The organization is comparable to that of a shipyard: tight schedule, provisioning, boarding of research equipment, calibration of instruments, health safety...
Captain Léo Boulon reminded us: " Once you're on the boat, the hard part is over ". The rest will be on the water, at the rhythm of the winds, stopovers and scientific stations.
