The schooner was triumphantly welcomed on Saturday October 15 in Lorient, after traveling 70,000 km in the South Atlantic, the Pacific and Antarctica for two years. Scientists took 25,000 samples to better understand how global warming and chemical pollution are transforming marine ecosystems. “This work will help us better protect the ocean tomorrow. Today, we depend on it”, explained Romain Troublé, CEO of the Tara Ocean Foundation. These bacteria, viruses, microbes, micro-algae that form the microbiome “provide half of the oxygen that is produced every day on the planet”he recalled.
franceinfo: What exactly is the microbiome?
Roman Troubled: This oceanic soup is a bit like the soil of our territories, of our lands. It’s a whole ecosystem of microbes that are essential for life in the oceans. Indispensable for the production of proteins in the oceans, to feed fish: this is called the food chain. Essential to produce oxygen every day, and essential to store a lot of carbon. We know how important carbon storage by all ecosystems, including the ocean, is today for our climate change.
What exactly is found in this microbiome?
We are talking about “good viruses”, not like Covid-19, but also bacteria, microalgae. This whole ecosystem works together to deliver all these services. It’s a bit like what we have in our intestine that digests food for us. It’s microbes that do it in the sea. It’s the same. There is a whole invisible world that provides services.
“These microbes help us have the atmosphere we have, the world we have today. They provide half of the oxygen that is produced every day on the planet.”
Roman Troubledat franceinfo
So it’s important to know how they behave and how they will change. How this little people of the invisible ocean will change with climate change, with the impacts of pollution on the oceans.
You have taken thousands of samples. How long will it take to analyze them?
We return with in the holds of Tara nearly 25,000 samples and many measurements. Scientists from the CNRS, the Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA), from all the laboratories involved in these projects will now work to make this information speak. In 18 months to two years, we will begin to have the first results, the first analyses. It’s about understanding what’s in the ocean. We don’t really know the ocean as well as we know our Earth. We also need to know where the important areas of the ocean are. This work will help us find how to better protect the ocean tomorrow. And then, it’s always a reminder of the urgency of the health of the ocean, of protecting it. Today, we depend on it.
Can you take the measure of the damage caused by plastic in the oceans?
One of the stresses of this ecosystem is the temperature, of course, which increases, but also the chemical plastic and the chemicals that are accidentally sent into the ocean every day. It is a scourge which is settled on the ground.
“It’s a scourge that is regulated in laws, in education, in the circular economy of our companies, of our industry. We have to take it as a challenge. If we take these things as a challenge, we will be able to mobilize more to respond to it.”
Roman Troubledat franceinfo
Tara has been at sea for 15 years. Each sample taken in the world for fifteen years presents pieces of microplastic, small fragments of a few millimeters. You find them everywhere. They have also been found in the Amazon River and in the Gambia River.
Were you touched by Tara’s welcome on Saturday in Lorient?
I would like to pay tribute to the people of Lorient and the Bretons who welcomed us at sea with 80 boats, on land with 4,000 people. It was incredible, very moving. For people who have spent the last 14 months on a boat, that feels weird. It’s very, very warm, very moving. It is a human adventure. We are mobilizing to better understand what is happening, to also convince people of the importance of protecting this planet, I think that speaks to people.