Committed to the environment since 2003

Tara Expeditions is a French not-for-profit organisation which has contributed to our growing knowledge of the oceans and climate since 2003. The organisation was launched thanks to the involvement of the business community and especially its founder, French fashion stylist agnès b.

 

A floating research institute

Tara Expeditions lends out the boat to researchers from all over the world who travel to every possible destination to study biological diversity, pollution and the effect of climate change on the oceans. Their findings and analyses are used by organisations across the world, including the UN.

Always on the move

Tara rarely stays long in harbour. She is always on the way to a new project and her first expedition to the Arctic Ocean took place 12 years ago. The main objective was to increase knowledge about sea-ice cover, key atmospheric processes and ocean circulation. In 2015, she returned to the Arctic, and in particular to Greenland to follow up measurements and analyses that scientists on board conducted. One main interest was the development of the area’s icebergs, which Tara gently had to navigate through during her trip. 

Tara Pacific 2016-2018

Tara recently returned from the Tara Pacific Expedition. For more than two years the boat sailed nearly 100,000 kilometres around the Pacific Ocean with eight crew members, four scientists and a correspondent on board. The scientists analysed the health of coral reefs and how they are affected by climate change.

There is much information under the surface just waiting to be discovered. Depending on the coral species, a 40 cm core can go back 400 years. Or as Gaby Gorsky, coordinator of the plankton project for Tara Pacific, says: “Nature is like the Internet!”