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64 | STRENGTHENING OCEANOGRAPHY

PROTECTING THE WORLD'S A LARGE AREA OF OCEAN
LARGEST SEAGRASS BED TRACKED BY SATELLITE

The panel of six scientists from the expedition then Throughout the mission, as part of the international
described the plateau located in the open sea, BGC Argo programme, 29 autonomous floats were
along the Mascarene Archipelago: one of the largest deployed in the previously poorly equipped area. For 5
seagrass beds in the world (the size of Switzerland). In- to 7 years, sailing between 0 and 2000 meters depth,
vestigations by oceanographers using a wide range of they will be constantly measuring the physicochemical
equipment (depth sounders, robots, nets, and towed and biological variables that are essential to unders-
gear) and divers have recorded hundreds of species tanding changes in the health of the ocean and its res-
and characterised the seabed and benthic biodiversity ponse to climate change. As part of the "Adopt a float"
over a 3,000-kilometre circuit at depths of up to 1,500 educational programme run by the Institut de la Mer
metres. in Villefranche-sur-Mer, nine classes in the region have
adopted 3 floats, which they are tracking by satellite.
The scientific results of the mission will help to de-
termine whether this little-known, remote, and diffi- As part of a programme developed by Météo France,
cult-to-access ecosystem, which has already been the IRD and the University of Western Australia, 19
weakened by fishing pressure, requires special atten- small floats and 4 drifting buoys were placed out to
tion in the medium term. If so, management measures sea to record surface temperature and current data
could be discussed with authorities in Mauritius and from the analysis of their trajectory. A contribution to
the Seychelles, who manage the area together. the modelling of ocean flows and the study of their in-
fluence on connectivity in the region.

EDUCATING AND RAISING
AWARENESS AN OCEAN NOT SPARED BY
PLASTIC POLLUTION
The quarter-hour mediation sessions held on the feed-
back day gave an overview of the many initiatives de- The Madcaps project team took around sixty samples
signed to bring the mission to life for as many people from the open sea and several samples from Aldabra
as possible, especially young people, notably through Island to determine the concentration and origin of the
the visits and events organised on board during the plastic residues collected and to identify any asso-
stopovers, or the direct contact between the scien- ciated pathogenic microbial communities.
tists and schoolchildren in France or the Principality, as
witnessed by Mrs Huet's class from the Cours Saint-
Maur in Monaco. THE ARTISTS' VIEW

The intense day of feedback ended with a presentation
TRAINING YOUNG of the artistic and audiovisual productions linked to the
RESEARCHERS mission, opening the doors of the imagination to a re-
gion at the crossroads of global ocean issues.
The "School on Board" programme organised between
La Réunion and the Seychelles enabled twenty stu-
dents from a Sorbonne University Masters programme
and the European IMBRSea Masters programme to
experience the first part of the mission as part of their
course. Ten young research or technical students from
the Seychelles and Mauritius also benefited from this
"school on board" supervised by teachers from the
oceanography laboratory in Villefranche-sur-Mer. An
opportunity to learn about science in the field from ex-
perienced researchers.