The Small Sailboat that Change the World of Ocean Science

    Image Tara Oceans Expedition Mapping the World of Plankton

How little we know about the Ocean and the life forms that inhabit it was made evident by Tara Oceans latests study. Tara- the small sailboat supported by big international names proved it can not only conduct professional science but that it could also rock the established world knowledge on ocean science. 

Science Magazine devoted a five page special report  to the results of their 6 year expedition. International press reported that Tara broke wide open a new unchartered world and mapped plankton reign. 

The Guardian reported on June 6th on the world of Christian Sardet, -scientific coordinator of Tara Oceans. Sardet photographic images published by the Guardian were taken during the circumnavigation of Tara expedition. 

Much has been reported on the scientific findings of Tara Oceans expedition but few media focused on how the team got the job done. The real live sailing, navigation and onboard scientific tools used by the team -without which nothing could have been accomplished are perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the expedition. It is sure no easy task to sail all world oceans, Pacific, Atlantic, Polar and Indian Ocean and the team of Tara managed to sail them all while accomplishing high level professional science revealing a wide range of new species and catalogue of genes. As onboard science becomes every day more important for oceanography Tara proves the task does not require the use of the most expensive nor largest vessels or billions in investment in technology. 

In May Etienne Bourgois and Roman Trouble signaled that there “would be a before and an after Tara Oceans”.

After being 6 years working on the expedition -4 of which were conducted sailing the team, began feeling confident of their results. 

“This expedition is also a story of men and women, scientists mobilized by Eric Karsenti, institutional and private partners who have followed us from the beginning, and of course sailors,” 

the President of Tara Etienne Bourgois enlightened us. 

  

“There’s aTara spirit that continues in the laboratories, and is transmitted at each stopover. We received wonderful welcomes in ports-of-call throughout the Tara Oceans expedition,” President Bourgois added. 

“We’ve proven that on a 36-meter sailboat, we can do top-level science that complements what is being done on larger vessels. One can imagine that we know everything about the Earth, but actually very little is known, particularly about the oceans, “ Tara Oceans President concluded. 

“On the basis of a portion of the 35,000 samples collected from all the world’s oceans during the expedition, the team mapped the biodiversity of a wide range of planktonic organisms, explored their interactions, and how plankton impact and are affected by their environment,” Tara communicated. 

Tara assures to have created a catalogue of several million new genes. UNESCO -one of the main partners of Tara Oceans believes that the study will “transform how we study the oceans and assess climate change”.

The known world of plankton, phytoplankton, dinoflagellates and other hundreds of diminute microscopic organisms has now been expanded and detailed thanks to the work of Tara. 

Some may have never even heard about these organisms while others may have never seen them nor will they ever see them but the ecological group is known as an “enabler of all existence on Earth”.

Beyond the attractive light show which most plankton organisms emit and beyond their impressive anatomy these microscopic bio-organisms are recognized for being the building blocks -main producers of the trophic webs. The world of plankton, which includes all these microorganisms plays massive roles in global climate, currents, ocean health, ocean balance, atmospheric balance and ocean-earth, among other vital cycles. The Tara Oceans plankton catalog also includes viruses, bacteria, microbes, archaea, protists, larvae and eukaryotes. 

The Tara ship sailed from 2009 to 2013. It took the team years to analyze the thousands of samples extracted from all ocean basins. On May 22nd the findings were published in a special issue of Science. 

The Spanish National Research Council CSIC which participated and supported the Tara Oceans expedition assures that the work which emerged is a “description of the planktonic world”. 

“Tropical forests are known as being fundamental ecosystems for the functioning of the planet but experts consider equally essential the function of the marine microplankton,” CSIC stated. 

“Over the past six years, I’ve seen Tara sail off with her captains and sailors at the helm, carrying on board our dear scientists and artists! We finally have the pleasure of learning about the immense discoveries made by the Tara Oceans, ” agnès b., Tara’s main support told the media which applauded the revelations made by the study for their scientific value. 

But how did Tara make it happen? Tara says that the first thing needed was visionary explorers which were not only capable of conceiving but also capable of mastering the sails. 

“Tara is a unique ship for scientific discovery and adventure,” the organization's states. Hoisting a French Flag, spanning 36 meters in length and 10 meters in width, with a helm body made entirely of aluminium and 2 masts each 27 metres height empowering the ship with a sail area of 400 square meters the Tara sailboat accepted gracefully the challenges set by all Oceans. 

With a total weight of 120 tons and geared with communication, meteorological, oceanographic, scientific, diving equipment and other necessary gadgets the boat set an ambitious route, sailed off to its 4 year destination and made it home intact with more than it departed. 

Scientific gear used by Tara included plankton nets for drag sampling, special surface nets, CTD Rosette, optical technology, specific plankton technology, spectrometers  and other oceanographic instrumentation.

Onboard five daring sailors, two scientists, one journalist and one artist. That is all it took for them to sequence over 7.2 trillion DNA base pairs of the marine microbial communities.

”This sequenced volume exceeds that of any previous study of marine microbial sequences. The data base of 40 million genes known called Ocean Microbial Reference Gene Catalog was generated. 80% of the genes identified by Tara Oceans are entirely new to science,” CSIC stated and lists a long list of new conclusions, such as temperature, global climate change and gene relationships which have detached from the study. CSIC adds that the Tara findings complement with the findings of another amazing expedition which threw astonishing new results to the World in 2015 -the Malaspina Expedition. 

Tara Oceans collected samples from surface to 900 metres of depths and Malaspina took on the same work but conducted studies up to 4 thousand meters of depths. Below the trophic zone and out of direct influence from sun UV energy exposure.

“This Tara Oceans expedition in terms of sailing can be compared with the voyage of HMS Challenger. Both of these expeditions changed Oceanography. Tara provided an unprecedented volume of DNA analysis for planktonic communities...” said Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and Assistant Director General stated.

The Challenger expedition took place between 1872 and 1876 it was the first grand oceanographic world wide campaign conducted by a team of scientists onboard the HMS Challenger. The expedition had such influence in the exploration of new unknown world that NASA used the name Challenger when they had to baptize their own spacecraft.