French Tara Oceans expedition to make a stop in Cyprus

The French Tara Oceans, a three year marine and scientific expedition which aims to demonstrate the reality of global warming, will be in Cyprus in early December as part of a worldwide tour.

The expedition will cover the world’s oceans and will study oceanic ecosystems, in order to better understand how to protect them.

According to a press release on the expedition, the oceans produce half of the oxygen we breathe. These prairies of plankton and other micro-organisms constitute, via their photosynthetic activity, an enormous oxygen pump. But these marine organisms are also a major carbon dioxide sink. As a result, the future depends on saving the oceans.

However, this complex ecosystem remains one of the least explored fields of oceanography and therefore the least well-known to man, despite its astonishing diversity. Today, this biodiversity is threatened by the major ecological upheavals of climate change and pollution.

The urgency of the situation, as well as the scope and the characteristics of the expedition will make it an extraordinary voyage around the planet, to help understand its origins and its present and to preserve its future.

An international team of oceanographers, ecologists, biologists and physicists from prestigious laboratories has been organised for the Tara Oceans expedition. Artists, journalists, scientific and cultural personalities from the visited countries will be associated with this exceptional adventure.

On September 4 and 5, Tara departed from Lorient with various festivities in front of the Cite de la Voile Eric Tabarly.

During its first stage, it will cross the Mediterranean and then the Indian Ocean. It will also stop at Piraeus, Greece on 27 November, on 4 December at Larnaca and at Limassol, Cyprus, on 8 December. Tara Oceans will be welcomed by the University of Cyprus Oceanographic Centre which cooperates with Tara.