Monday, April 25, 2022
Since its origin, in January 2011, the philanthropic association of general interest OceanoScientific primarily targets young people in CE2-CM1-CM2 classes with the aim of making them RESPECT and LOVE the Ocean. To this end, Carla Di Santo, Scientific Coordinator & Diving Manager of theOceanoScientific Expeditions, assisted The Sea Workshop on Wednesday April 13 to take a group of twenty-four girls and boys aged six to twelve on a snorkeling trip to raise their awareness of the marine environment and to discover the animals of the Mediterranean shallows in their natural habitat. These children are from one of the programs offered by Synergy Family, co-founded by Laurent Choukroun and Frank Tortel, which has offered for more than ten years the opportunity for all kinds of activities aimed at individual and collective development. This trip to sea, financed by"Marseille Capital of the Sea", registered in operation "A step towards the sea", resulting from the collaboration of four partners: Marseille Capitale de la Mer, Synergie Family, Le Cercle des Nageurs and the CMA CGM Foundation. Thus, children learn to swim and live edutainment experiences to understand, love and respect the sea. Let us remember on this occasion that "Marseille Capital of the Sea" brings together the living forces of the Marseille city, whether economic, cultural, industrial, craft, sporting, gastronomic, environmental, academic, social, or institutional, to enhance the sea as an urban resource. The association team OceanoScientific is therefore happy to support this initiative to raise awareness of the major role of the sea in our urban lives.
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
News 2018
Tuesday 6 November 2018
OceanoScientific on reconnaissance in Cape Verde
As part of the preparations for the OceanoScientific 2019-2020 Expeditions during the austral summer (November 2018 - February 2019), then the austral winter (June - September 2020), Yvan Griboval, who until recently was Expeditions Director for the OceanoScientific Association and who became its President last October 18, went a week later to Mindelo, on the island of São Vicente in the archipelago of Cape Verde. Objectives: to identify port facilities as well as technical and sailing resources; visit the Ocean Science Center Mindelo (OSCM). The center was created further to a joint initiative by the German Institute GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel- which provided most of the funding - and the National Cape Verdean Fisheries Research Institute (INDP). It so happens that as part of the cooperation to be developed under the auspices of the Fabienne Gaillard Scientific Committee between the OceanoScientific Programme and GEOMAR on the issues involved in collecting data on CO2 partial pressure on the surface of the Ocean, the Ocean Science Center Mindelo could serve as a port call on the route from Monaco to the Forties and Fifties and the return. The only major oceanographic complex in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the OSCM will also host, at the end of January 2019, the Annual Meeting of the POGO (Partnership for the Observation of the Global Ocean), during which the forthcoming OceanoScientific Expeditionswill be presented to the international scientific community in conjunction with the Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (Ifremer) ; the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN).
The bay of Baía das Gatas, a tiny fishing village (at the bottom of the picture) in the north of the island of São Vicente (Cape Verde Archipelago) is considered one of the most beautiful in the world. Authentic, wild, and even hostile due to the waves breaking and violent currents, the beach of Praia Grande (in the foreground) is an incredible receptacle for waste!
Photo OceanoScientific
Yvan Griboval, President of the OceanoScientific Association was welcomed by Carlos Ferreira Santos (left) from the Ocean Science Center Mindelo (OSCM), representative on-site of GEOMAR. On the agenda: a visit of the gleaming, well-equipped facilities of this unique laboratory in the middle of the Atlantic.
Photo OceanoScientific
The beach of Praia Grande is littered with all types of waste at the level of the drift line. It is obvious that some come from the Cape Verde archipelago. But others, in the form of micro-waste, have been naturally carried there by the currents and trade winds blowing from the African coast to the West.
Photo OceanoScientific
When detailing the types of waste, those from nets and other fishing gear seem to predominate. At least to the eye. Perhaps they are also more resistant and only become micro-waste much longer after being carried by the Ocean, which is decidedly severely polluted.
Photo OceanoScientific
This fishing buoy, used to identify the presence of a net or a trap, is not common to the Archipelago of Cape Verde. Its origin is probably very far from São Vicente, as evidenced by its general condition. Photo OceanoScientific
On the fishing buoy stranded on Praia Grande a large number of tiny seashells can be seen. It is a "pelagic gooseneck barnacle" or "smooth gooseneck barnacle" of the family Liparidae, whose scientific name is Lepas anatifera. Its presence testifies to the long journey this waste has made before being washed up in Cape Verde. Around each object driven in this way by the currents and winds there has formed an ecosystem with zooplankton, micro-shells, and small fish. This extraordinary life attracts pelagic birds and larger marine predators in the food chain. They find their food in an environment polluted by drifting waste.
Photo OceanoScientific
Tuesday 18 September 2018
Yvan Griboval: "Two expeditions on the agenda and a major challenge!"
Since his return from the 2016-2017 OceanoScientific Expedition, on the 2ndof June last year at the pontoon of the Yacht Club of Monaco after his single-handed tour of the world lasting 152 days, 60 of which on an unprecedented and successful oceanographic campaign around Antarctica, under the 40th Southern Parallel and the three main continental capes: the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn, Yvan Griboval has been an on-shore explorer, focusing on new projects. This September, the agenda with several expeditions has been taking shape, as has the nature of the future yacht that will allow him to return "home", to the land of the Albatross, there where few sailors sail: in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, between 40° and 60° South. And always with an oceanographic objective in sight. Interview on the beach of Cabourg (Normandy) where Yvan Griboval lives and finds his strength.
There are a thousand and one ways of representing the globe depending on where you are. The South African oceanographer and geophysicist (who became an American citizen in 1946) Athelstan Frederick Spilhaus represented the World in 1942 on the principle that the Ocean covers 71% of the globe and that it was important to highlight that fact, with Antarctica in the center.
An ideal map for presenting the next OceanoScientific Expeditions.
OceanoScientific map produced with Unik Studio Caen based on A. F. Spilhaus / The Cartographer
OceanoScientific (OSC): It has been more than a year of virtual silence, except for your lectures and the presentation of your film. But no sailing, no oceanographic expeditions. What have you been doing all this time?
Yvan Griboval (YG): "I landed in Monaco on 2 June 2017 with very specific ideas in mind. I came back with some explicit projects I wanted to carry out. But first we had to confirm a certain number of parameters. In particular, I had to work with the Ifremer and CNRS scientists who have accompanied and guided my work since 2006, to find out if the data we collected made sense and whether there was any interest in returning to the Far South. The answer is 100% positive, without a shadow of a doubt. We are therefore preparing to set off on another OceanoScientific Expedition around the World and mainly around Antarctica, in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the one that feeds all the ocean currents of the Planet. That is my favourite "playground", my homeland.
Another important parameter, when I arrived at the pontoon of the Yacht Club of Monaco, is the first person I spoke to was HSH Sovereign Prince Albert II. I immediately expressed to Him my commitment to serve Him in His fight to preserve the ocean and its biodiversity until the end of my physical capacities as a navigator - explorer. That commitment is based on the need for efficiency. His role is to discuss at the highest level. Ours, as explorers and adventurers, is to bear witness, to provide Him with the material with which to back up His speeches, so that His words help to raise the awareness of the greatest number of people and incite His colleague Heads of States to take action in order to preserve the Ocean and its biodiversity. For me, the Sovereign Prince is "The Voice of the Ocean" and all our efforts must serve Him.
However, between the wish to act the right way and find the right method of doing so, has taken time. There again, I set off in one direction, then in another. I listened to advice. Not always the best. I have had some good ideas and some less realistic. I think I have found an innovative and effective method of achieving my aims after more than a year of reflection and work. The objective is to widen the circle of people who consider that the Ocean is our Future and that we must preserve it, as well as its biodiversity. That is what I meant in a slightly reductive way by announcing on my arrival in Monaco that I wanted to "raise an army" in the service of the Sovereign Prince. The terms were excessive, I admit it. But that is the idea and I shall keep to it.
I cannot disclose today exactly what we are preparing to do, but it is original, of truly global scope and scale and we have gathered most of assets needed to make it a success ... "
OSC: So you plan to leave again. Do you plan to go it alone again?
YG: "Sailing away single-handed is out of the question. The world tour and the first single-handed oceanographic campaign in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, that's been and done. It was great, but I do not see the point of setting out on an adventure like that again. You cannot duplicate love stories! The magic lies in constructing the future, not in repeating the past.
For real scientific efficiency, you have to sail with a crew. It is also important to prepare the forthcoming generation of OceanoScientific Expeditions for the next ten years and beyond. Our work must be sustainable over time and I have not abandoned my idea of equipping all of the ocean racing yachts sailing in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. But you have to learn how to be patient in order to convince the people you're talking to...
We shall have a crew of eight with perfect gender diversity: four men and four women. Its something to which I attach great importance. There will be two watches of three people. For each watch: a watch leader from the Volvo Ocean Race (the crewed race around the world), a high-level crew member specialized in one or more of the vital features of a sailboat: power or hydraulics, composites, etc. and an oceanographer. Two young women oceanographers of great talent will be on board. They have an incredible range of experience between them. To these six people we shall add a drone pilot who will be responsible for the images and scientific observations at altitude.
I shall complete the crew as skipper - navigator and expedition director. I feel more like I'm forming a commando than a crew. Because the challenges we shall be facing are major ones. The nautical and scientific objectives are ambitious!
OSC: What kind of sailboat will allow you to meet these new nautical and oceanographic challenges?
YG: "We had to decide which would be the best sailboat with which to return. That may sound simple for someone who has over forty years of experience in sailing. In fact, it was much more complicated than I imagined.
My investigations started out in various directions. I hesitated between an 18-meter (60-foot) and a 26-meter (85-foot) yacht. I hesitated between buying a thirty-year-old sailboat or designing and building a new once. I listened to a lot of advice. I imagined a lot of solutions. I went to see a sailboat in the south of Italy and I even tried another one in the Solent (GB) at the end of the winter. My choice was made with a fabulous racing yacht, ideal for my forthcoming challenges. There was only one problem: it was not for sale!
All this put together represented nine months of work. We also had to find out whether the project of designing and building a new boat was financially feasible. There was no point in dreaming; constructing the future is a serious venture. The sailboat is only a tool for our oceanographic campaigns, even though our success in meeting the challenges we have set ourselves will partly be thanks to the yacht.
The fundamental question was very simple: Which sailboat has been designed to sail the Far South quickly and safely, that is to say, one capable of escaping the worst depressions and sometimes sailing in true "race mode"? The answer was simple: one of the eight Volvo Ocean 65 (VO65) 20 meter yachts designed by the American firm Farr Design. They have been made of carbon remarkably well by three different shipyards for the last two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, including the one that ended last June 30 in the Netherlands. But the future of the eight sailboats was not specified. No one knew until the end of July what they were to become. In fact they will be able to run the next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race (which will change name) in 2021-2022. They will be reserved for young crews composed of men and women in a class of their own, a "Junior Class".
The month of August being holiday time, we started the steps involved in buying the VO65 that I consider to be the best of the eight early in September 2018. We now have to pay for it as quickly as possible to make sure it does not escape us! We are now racing against the clock.
The next OceanoScientific Explorer (OSE) will be a Volvo Ocean 65, one of eight fantastic prototypes built in a small series from plans drafted by the American firm Farr Design for the last two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, including the one that ended last June 30 in the Netherlands. These eight sailboats will constitute the "Junior Class" category for the next edition of the crewed around-the-world race, from September 2021 to June 2022. Photo Volvo Ocean Race touched up
The solution of using an ocean racing sailboat is ideal to my mind. I am delighted to head a project that will combine scientific sailing and ocean racing. It brings me back to the fundamentals of the OceanoScientific Program as I first imagined it.
In 2005, I had the idea - which seemed absurd at that time - to equip ocean racing yachts sailing in the Far South, under the three main continental capes, with an oceanographic system capable of collecting scientific data at the Air-Sea interface, the point where the Climate is "played out", and offer the resulting data free of charge to scientists around the world.
On 14 November 2006, I presented the idea to a flock of specialized scientists. They found it interesting. But they explained to me that it was impossible. Because no system existed at the time capable of carrying out data collections of such a scientific nature on a racing sailboat. After ten years of hard work and incredible effort, financed by selling everything that my wife Cécile possessed and passing very close to the bankruptcy of our small family company, I managed to design and build the OSC System (for OceanoScientific System) and then demonstrate its effectiveness with this single-handed tour around the world. It represents ten years of hard labour, which is something on its own...
Today, we are the only ones to have such a system and considerable experience in sailing a yacht capable of collecting scientific data of genuine quality that are really exploitable. I might note in passing that the number of impostors in the field is growing ...
The scientific results of the 2016-2017 OceanoScientific Expedition, which were only finalised last August, fourteen months after my return - which may seem a long time but we had to compare what I had collected with the large volumes of disparate data and validate them in scientific terms - those results will allow us to make a number of changes to the OSC System. As a result, our forthcoming expeditions will be of high scientific quality and our partners from the institutes concerned are extremely excited about that fact.
To give an example, when we started our work, Fabienne Gaillard (Ifremer) considered that to accurately measure the temperature of the surface water to within two tenths of a degree of the real temperature compared with the scientific models would be a success. In 2019 we shall set out again, this time with a precision capacity of around a hundredth of a degree, that is to say the maximum capacity of the best sensors that exist to date.
The presence on board of two talented oceanographers will allow us to regularly calibrate the sensors as determined by the scientists themselves, according to laboratory procedures. We shall strive for excellence.
It will be a major oceanographic first. But we still have a lot of work before we reach that point. We must continue on the course we have set ourselves with the greatest humility!"
OSC: What will your next expeditions involve?
YG: "We have two expeditions on the agenda. Both will involve studies that have never been done in this vast area of the Ocean. For example, we are going to observe the precise rates and nature of the pollutants on the surface of the sea. Because detecting micro waste in those seas and estimating its quantity is one thing. To determine the pollution that contaminates every living being in a region where there are no people at all, starting with the phytoplankton at the very origin of the food chain, is much more important. Nobody has ever done that yet on the route of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current under the three main continental capes. That is one of our goals. The result has a chance of stirring a wide audience.
The first forthcoming OceanoScientific Expedition involves going back and sailing around Antarctica during the austral summer (December - February). We shall leave from Monaco at the end of October 2019, stopping in the Cape Verde Archipelago to work with the Ocean Science Center Mindelo (OSCM) to calibrate the on-board sensors. We shall be equipped with sensors identical to those that the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel uses on buoys fixed in Cape Verde, with particular regard to the carbon partial pressure sensors (pCO2) on the surface of the sea.
We shall then head to a virtual point between Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope, on the 40th Southern Parallel. That will be our entry and exit point for the 2019-2020 OceanoScientific Summer Expedition and those after it.
We shall have about 60 days of sailing on a course covering 14 to 15,000 nautical miles (26 to 28,000 km) around Antarctica, depending on the weather conditions and the position of the iceberg fields. Then we shall return to Mindelo to check the calibration of the scientific sensors on the road to Monaco, which we should reach around the end of March 2020, probably during the Monaco Ocean Week.
After maintenance for two months (April - May), we shall leave Monaco at the beginning of June 2020 to attempt something that has never been done by a crew since humans have set to sea: a tour of Antarctica non-stop during the austral winter (July - September).
This time we do not plan a scientific stopover in Mindelo, but a world tour from Monaco to Monaco without any port call. The descent, like the ascent of the Atlantic, represents about a month of sailing depending on the calms you encounter at any season around the Equator. We shall aim again for our virtual entry-exit point in the Roaring Forties, then we shall sail around Antarctica from West to East, in the dominant sense of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. It is also the direction of the prevailing winds during the austral summer. That is less the case during the austral winter. We may meet strong contrary winds. We shall see…
During the winter season, scientists have no observations of any kind at the Air-Sea interface in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, in particular because satellites cannot pierce the cloud layer and no research ship sails in those waters. As for the drifting floats of the Argo community, they work mostly under the surface (down to 2,000 meters and more)and do not collect the data of the numerous atmospheric parameters provided by the sensors that we shall ship, nor those which will be provided by our work at altitude with our drones, just under the cloud layer. We shall also bring back a large quantity of samples in every field of research, to allow the study, in the laboratories on shore, of surface biodiversity.
IF all is well - and it's a capital IF! - we hope to be back in Monaco at the end of October 2020.
We approach the challenge with immense humility. We shall do everything we can to prepare it well. But in the end, it's the Ocean that will decide! We shall try to be worthy of iit, as I tried myself during the single-handed 2016-2017 OceanoScientific Expedition.
OSC: And now, as we approach the end of 2018, one year from the next departure of your world tour, what are your most important tasks?
YG: "Whether you set out on the Ocean to win a sports cup, to try to break a record or to collect unprecedented oceanographic data for the benefit of the international scientific community - to whom we offer for free what we collect before storing and preserving it in Monaco for the benefit of future generations of oceanographers - the name of the game is the same: To find the funding that will allow us to prepare properly. It is vital in order to succeed what we intend to do. Our success depends on the quality of our preparation, and therefore on the financing that we shall actually have for that preparation.
My successful single-handed world tour highlighted the fact that we can meet the challenges we set ourselves. We are therefore currently forming a group of enthusiasts who will finance these next oceanographic sailing campaigns, without any CO2 emissions or waste. I call them the "OceanoScientific Angels". I am extremely happy and very proud of their commitment alongside us, and of the trust they place in me.
Even if the "OceanoScientific Angels" will only come on board during our preparatory sailing in the Mediterranean or Cape Verde, they will be an integral part of the crew of "OSE", the new OceanoScientific Explorer we need to meet our challenges, the purpose of which is to help scientists better understand the Air-Sea interface, as well as the causes and consequences of climate change, to help us preserve the Ocean and its biodiversity for the benefit of future generations.
Yvan Griboval, a Norman of Viking origins, finds his strength in Cabourg where he lives with his family. The main physical preparation for his expeditions is to walk quickly for miles along the vast, beautiful Normandy beach with water at mid-thigh, summer and winter. Or to cycle along the narrow roads in the Dives marshes where William the Conqueror once prepared for his victorious invasion of England. Photo OceanoScientific
Tuesday 3 April 2018
Creation of the Fabienne Gaillard Scientific Committee
Ever since its creation on 14 November 2006, the OceanoScientific Programme established as a founding principle the commitment to scrupulously follow the recommendations of scientists, with particular regard to the choice of sensors to be used and the procedures for their implementation. When the OceanoScientific philanthropic association and registered charity was created on 7 January 2011 by Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet (President-founder), André Ladurelli (✞)and Rupert Schmid, that principle was adopted as an inalienable rule.
At the end of the 2016-2017 OceanoScientific Expedition - a successful first in oceanographic campaigns in the 40°/60° South corridor - the decision was taken to strengthen the governance of the association with an expanded Board of Trustees, now chaired by Lamène Krim. Due to the nature of the scientific projects to be implemented in the coming years (2018-2021), the Board decided to endow the association with a committee of eminent scientists working on the various parameters for which the OceanoScientific Expeditions can collect quality data, samples and observations.
The result is the constitution of the Fabienne Gaillard Scientific Committee.
Fabienne Gaillard (✞) - Researcher - physicist
Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS - Ifremer)
"On Tuesday, 14 November 2006, the actual start date of the OceanoScientific Programme in Paris at the Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN) then headed by Laurence Eymard, Ifremer associate Fabienne Gaillard provided me with her support and usual enthusiasm and expertise. She was an efficient guide, so much so that I used to portray her as the "Mom of the OceanoScientific Programme", whose degree of commitment, generosity and goodwill towards the project was always sincere and wholehearted. For many years Fabienne headed the Laboratoire de Physique des Océans (LPO) for which she worked from the very beginning and "represented in the Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS) a personality of scientific rigor", as bore witness Antoine Dosdat, Director of Ifremer site in Plouzané (Brest) on 30 March 2017. Suffering from a serious orphan disease that inexorably took its toll, Fabienne fought for several years like a sailor in a storm. A hurricane even. But one that never ceased, and finally took her with it on Saturday, 25 March 2017, while I was sailing single-handed less than 24 hours from Cape Horn, effectively operating the OSC System that she had so much helped to design. It is therefore perfectly legitimate that the association's Scientific Committee should be named after Fabienne Gaillard and I shall continue to take her with me on the next OceanoScientific Expeditions..." Yvan Griboval, designer of the OceanoScientific Programme- OceanoScientific ExpeditionsDirector.
Laurence Eymard - Director of the Fabienne Gaillard Scientific Committe
As a researcher at the CNRS, Knight of the Legion of Honour, Laurence Eymard spent her career in the field of climate and ocean-atmosphere interactions until 2017. She supervised and participated in a dozen measurement campaigns at sea (1990 - 2000) and at the same time specialized in the spatial observation of the atmosphere and the ocean surface. She directed the Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat: Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN) from 2004 to 2011. As such, Laurence learnt about the OceanoScientific project on November 14, 2006. With colleagues at LOCEAN and several other laboratories, including Fabienne Gaillard (✞) of Ifremer, she supported and encouraged this innovative approach to offer ocean and climate research data collected at the Air-Sea interface. In recent years, the challenges of climate change and ecological transition have led Laurence to engage in projects involving scientists and citizens, within the framework of the Institut de la transition environnementale Sorbonne Université. In particular, she had led a participatory observatory project on the urban environment.
Denis Allemand - Marine Biology
Scientific Director of the Scientific Center of Monaco (CSM) and Professor of University, Denis Allemand obtained his doctorate in 1986 at the University of Montpellier II (France) in Pharmacological sciences and Endocrinology. His main field of research concerns the physiology of marine organisms, mainly corals, and their use as model organisms to understand the major problems of biology (biomineralization, symbiosis, evolution...). He is also studying the effect of ocean acidification on marine organisms. He is co-author of about 150 scientific papers and numerous chapters of books and popular articles. He supervised twelve doctoral students. He is a member of various scientific councils (Prince Albert II Foundation, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Ifremer) and Board of Directors (Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer, INDEMER). He is a member of Academia Europaea. He is Knight of the Order of Saint Charles, Knight of the Order of Grimaldi, Knight of the French Order of Maritime Merit and Officer of Academic Palms.
Pierre Blouch - Atmosphere
Retired from Météo-France, Pierre Blouch had been working as an engineer at the Centre of Marine Meteorology in Brest, for 35 years. Since the 1980s, his main activities consisted in the design, maintenance and operations of anchored and drifting weather buoys for research and operational meteorology purposes. In the frame of the Data Buoy Cooperation Panel of the WMO-IOC Joint Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM), he contributed to the enhancement of the acquisition of real-time data, their transmission over the WMO network, the control of their quality, and the delayed mode data processing. In 2003, he was given the responsibility for the operational service for surface marine observations of EUMETNET, the grouping of European meteorological services. On this occasion, his skills were extended to automatic shipborne weather stations and he has contributed significantly to the realization of a European station called EUCAWS. Early on, Pierre Blouch advised the OceanoScientific Programme in its choices for meteorological measurements as well as real-time data transmission ashore. Thanks to that, OceanoScientific data are pushed on the WMO network (GTS).
Thomas Changeux - Sargassum algae
Fisheries biologist originally specialized in large rivers and estuaries impacted by Manand after a Ph.D. dedicated to Rhône River, Thomas Changeux has contributed during 11 years to different national programs on management of aquatic environment performed by the French Agency for Biodiversity. At this position, he developed several participatory approaches to fisheries and environmental monitoring, connecting fishermen, anglers and other stakeholders. In 2006, Thomas joined the French Research Institute for Development (IRD) where he expanded his expertise to tropical marine environment and to the French Oceanographic Fleet. He promoted the implementation of scientific data centers dedicated to French overseas and contributed to Iles Eparses (SW Indian Ocean) research program. In 2016, Thomas joined the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) of Marseille where he leads the pole “Research Support to Integrated Management of Marine Environment”. Recently, he took part in the French oceanographic campaigns dedicated to Sargassum algae in the Atlantic Ocean. Thomas is convinced that the future of oceanography relies on new platforms at sea.
Loriane Mendez - Seabirds
Fascinated by the marine world since childhood, Loriane Mendez is specialized in the study of top predators. In the current context of global change, her motivations aim to better understand the causes and consequences of environmental fluctuations on seabirds and marine mammals populations. After a first degree in Biology of Organisms (Nice, France) and a Master's degree in Oceanography - Marine Biology and Ecology (Marseille, France), she did her doctoral thesis on the impact of environmental conditions on the distribution and the foraging behaviour of seabirds in tropical pelagic ecosystems (CEBC-CNRS, France). Her scientific background provided her a wide range of skills and experiences (spatial analysis, population genetics) applied to different study models (dolphins, whales, penguins and tropical seabirds). She is currently working for The Mediterranean Science Commission (CIESM) to develop a Seabird Taskforce at the Mediterranean basin scale. During the first Oceanoscientific Expedition Loriane helped to identify the seabirds observed.
Nicolas Metzl - pCO2
Since 30 years, Nicolas Metz lis Research Scientist at CNRS. His career has been devoted to research on marine carbon cycle, including air-sea CO2 fluxes, anthropogenic carbon, and recently ocean acidification. He started as a modeller in an observational team (PhD conducted at UPMC/Paris and UNH/USA) and investigated the variability of the air-sea CO2 fluxes based on both in-situ observations and biogeochemical models and then explored the penetration of anthropogenic CO2 in the ocean (WOCE/JGOFS era in the 90s). In 1998, he started a long-term observational project OISO (cruises conducted on-board R/V Marion-Dufresne in the Indian and Southern Oceans) still operating and complementary to the international network. As a Chair of the SOLAS/IMBER Carbon group, he initiated in 2007 the international data-base SOCAT (Surface Ocean Carbon Atlas, www.socat.info) now regularly used each year to evaluate the global carbon budget (Global Carbon Project). Since the first meeting with Yvan in 2006, Nicolas follows the OceanoScientific Programme, helps for proposals and participates in the data quality-control.
Rosemary Morrow - Physics parameters in the Antarctic zone
French-Australian physical oceanographer, Rosemary Morrow works at LEGOS (Laboratoire des Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiale) in Toulouse since 1992. She specializes in mesoscale ocean dynamics, mainly using satellite and in-situ observations. As a member of the CNAP – Conseil National des Astronomes et Physiciens, she also works on maintaining precise, long term observations for climate studies for the French National satellite altimeter data service, the CTOH, and for a Southern Ocean in-situ monitoring service, SURVOSTRAL, onboard the French Antarctic supply ship, the Astrolabe. Rosemary also lectures in oceanography and satellite oceanography at the University of Toulouse III. Since 2009, Rosemary was nominated Project Scientist for the CNES altimetry missions, notably for the Jason missions (2009-2012) and is the French Ocean Lead for the future altimetric-interferometric mission, SWOT.
Gilles Reverdin - All paramèters
Oceanographer affiliated to CNRS since 1981, Gilles Reverdin is adjunct-scientist at LDEO, Institute of Columbia University (New York) since 1995. After a French University thesis on air-sea exchanges in the Indian Ocean and the summer Indian monsoon, he has worked largely on observing the ocean in order to understand its physical and geochemical dynamics, and ascertain the role it plays in the climate system. For that, he has been particularly keen to study the surface ocean, its currents, its geochemistry, the air-sea exchanges, and to maintain observing systems for long durations in order to serve as a reference for the future generations. During the last fifteen years, Gilles has been involved in building up Coriolis, a French inter-agency project with a European flavor, dedicated in organizing and coordinating the observation of the oceans in France and at the European level, both for finalized "operational" activities and for research purposes. Gilles is also interested in new technological developments and to the transfer of some of these observing activities to the citizens. He follows and advises the OceanoScientific Programme since the beginning in 2006.
Thierry Reynaud - Temperature / Salinity
After a Ph.D in Montréal Canada devoted to the study of the water masses and currents in the Labrador Sea, Thierry Reynaud, French-Canadian, landed at Brest for a first postdoctoral position in the Laboratoire de Physique des Océans (LPO - Ifremer). The first part of his career was devoted to the compilation of temperature and salinity measurements in the Atlantic and the realization of climatologies used by the modelling community. Since 1998, he is working at Ifremer as an engineer in the LPO that recently become LOPS. First recruited to work on direct measurements of deep currents in the Atlantic, he is currently involved on projects of atmospheric modeling with an interest for the air - sea interface. At the request of Fabienne Gaillard (✞). Thierry devotes since 2014 a part of its activity to the measurements of surface salinity and temperature from opportunity ships that are ecologically less intrusive. A technical role in the installation of sensors, processing data and dissemination of results, role that proved to be a nice way to link work and an not moderate passion for sailing. During the first OceanoScientific Expedition, Thierry has been a permanent shore-link for the day-to-day control of the oceanographic data.
Richard Sempéré - Contaminants / Microplastics
CNRS senior scientist, Richard Sempéré is a Geochemist Oceanographer specialized in organic compound cycling in the Ocean and the atmosphere. Richard joined several oceanographic cruises in Mediterranean Sea as well as in Atlantic and Southern austral Ocean. He worked on bacterial and photochemical organic matter degradation. He is currently studying organic contaminants and microplastics in the Ocean. After research studies in Tokyo, Japan, Richard Sempéré was hired at CNRS in 1994 and became director of Marine microbial and Geochemistry laboratory (LMGEM), he is since 2012 director of the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) which gathers 240 scientists from CNRS, IRD, Aix Marseille University and Toulon University. He has been PI of the MERMEX project that aims to study the impact of global change on marine ecosystems in Mediterranean Sea. As a scientist interested by seawater sampling for further analyses, Richard is excited with large perspectives of the Ocean offered by the OceanoScientific Programme.
Julia Uitz - Plankton
A research scientist at CNRS, Julia Uitz received a PhD in biogeochemical oceanography in 2006. After 5 years at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (USA) as a postdoctoral fellow, she joined the Laboratoire d’Oceanography de Villefranche (France) in 2012. Her research focuses on phytoplankton communities and their influence on the carbon biological pump in the global ocean and in specific oceanic regions, the Austral Ocean in particular. For this purpose, she explores new approaches that combine optical and biogeochemical observations acquired from traditional sampling onboard research vessels and collected by in situ (BGC-Argo profiling floats) and satellites (ocean color) autonomous platforms. Julia participated in several large field expeditions, among which KEOPS (2005) and SOCLIM (2016) in the Kerguelen region, Southern Ocean. In 2017, she has joined the international SCOR working group “P-OBS” that aims to stimulate the integration of systems for observing plankton into large ongoing ocean sampling programs. Julia is also involved in the outreach projects “mon ocean & moi” and “adopt a float” whose objective is to share oceanographic researches with schoolchildren.
Didier Zoccola - Marine Biology
Molecular biologist studying the physiology of reef corals, Didier Zoccola Ph.D. is since 2000 senior scientist at the Centre Scientifique de Monaco (CSM) with a focus on biomineralization and symbiosis. For more than 15 years, he has combined molecular biology, biochemistry and immunochemistry to understand how corals build their skeletons, focusing on: (i) how ions are regulated during skeletogenesis, and (ii) the role of the organic matrix in biomineralization. Ocean acidification (OA) reduces rates at which reef corals calcify, and therefore, naturally, Didier Zoccola begun to carry out mechanistic studies regarding OA and biomineralization. Dr. Zoccola defended his Ph.D. in 1993 in Life Sciences (speciality immunology) from the University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis, and worked after that at the Nice Hospital. His passion for the sea and scuba diving led him naturally to marine biology and coral reef science. He took part in expeditions: Tara Ocean (2010), Tara Pacific (2017-2018). In the new expedition launch by the Principality of Monaco, “Monaco Explorations”, he was in charge of implementations of facilities on-board such as the different laboratories and instruments. Furthermore, he is the coordinator of the CSM scientific project for Monaco Explorations and he is also Tara Pacific coordinator (Symbiont and Host aspects).
Monday 19 February 2018
OceanoScientific expands its Board of Trustees
Created on 7 January 2011, OceanoScientific has expanded its Board of Trustees to back the build-up of the association following the successful OceanoScientific Expedition 2016-2017by Yvan Griboval during 60 days of single-handed oceanographic exploration in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (40°/60° South), under the three main continental capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin, and the Horn. To implement the new programs and future expeditions from Cape Town to Cape Town around Antarctica - as always outbound from / inbound to Monaco - the governance of this philanthropic association and registered charity has now been entrusted on a gender parity basis to Lamène Krim, President; Juliette Declercq, Vice-President; Brigitte Huault Delannoy, Secretary General; and Rupert Schmid, Treasurer. The position of Scientific Director has been created and entrusted to Laurence Eymard (CNRS), who thus integrates the Board of Trustees with the task of constituting and coordinating the "Fabienne Gaillard Scientific Committee" with twelve members from the scientific institutes that supervise OceanoScientific actions. The Committee will be operational as of mid-March. The other members of the Board of Trustees are Rémi Bollack, Jacques Saint-Marc and Béatrice Witvoet. Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet, formerly Founding President, becomes Honorary President. Cécile d'Estais remains Delegate General and Yvan Griboval Director of OceanoScientific Expeditions.
Albert I, Prince de Monaco Library / Maison des Océans / Paris (France) - On Saturday, February 10, 2018, Lamène Krim, after 38 years spent in management positions at IBM France, and as a consultant in development strategy for innovative companies since 2012, became the pro bono President of the OceanoScientific association for a term of five years - Photo OceanoScientific
Lamène Krim - President
After a 38-year career at IBM, Lamène Krim, with a Master's degree in Mathematics and a post-graduate degree in Information Systems, advises and accompanies executives on a pro bono basis about the development of their careers. He also works as a strategy consultant for innovative companies, such as Energimotique, a fast-growing business specializing in smart buildings. Lamène obtained his first management position to direct the technical and marketing support for IBM France's External Operations Department (DOE), covering 23 countries (Africa and French overseas departments and territories). He then created and managed the after-sales service for the new UNIX line whose success - a benchmark worldwide - earned him the "President's Award 1993". From the end of the 90s until 2012, Lamène led the Mainframe business, and then the Technical and Technological Support for IBM France. This eclectic experience as an executive in multiple sectors of the global IT giant allowed Lamène to help implement emerging technology solutions, up to the integration of the first sixteen companies acquired by IBM in the early years 2000.
Juliette Declercq - Vice-President
Fascinated by the financial markets, Juliette Declercq founded (in 2015) and currently directs JDI Research Ltd, a consulting firm in macroeconomics, geopolitics and financial investments after twenty years of successful professional experience with international financial institutions, such as JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Today, JDI Research Ltd is a global leader in investment and macroeconomics consultancy services with tailor-made recommendations for the investment managers of the most influential investment companies. This key role at the epicenter of all macroeconomic trends allows Juliette to see the risks related to the short-term vision of governments and to witness the race for growth that neglects the necessary sustainability of resources, as opposed to reasoned growth in the long term. Environmental ecosystems and biodiversity are suffering from the consequences of this global phenomenon, especially the Ocean, a source of life for our descendants. Juliette is fighting to leave her children, Theodore and Josephine, the planet they deserve.
Brigitte Huault Delannoy - General Secretary
A Loyal TF1 employee for 38 years, Brigitte Huault Delannoy has spent her entire career in television. After a few years in the Sports Department as Head of Special Operations and Partnerships alongside Jean-Claude Dassier, Brigitte joined the Executive Management of the channel with Etienne Mougeotte. She set up the major events policy: NRJ Music Awards, Enfoirés, "Yellow Coins" fund-raising campaigns, Sidaction, etc., as well as the main evening music shows, including Johnny Hallyday, Celine Dion, Charles Aznavour, to name but a few. Brigitte also manages TF1 documentaries and the strategy of sponsored short programmes, both in terms of content and positioning. As Head of Music Partnerships, Brigitte creates and develops the link between TF1, the world of music and artists. Today, at the head of BHD World, she produces and directs programmes and documentaries for TV channels. For six years with the Moroccan National Tourist Office she produced and directed no less than 120 portraits that have been broadcast on TF1, M6, and LCI.
Rupert Schmid - Treasurer
Born of Austrian parents, Rupert Schmid arrived in France at the age of four. A media mogul at 21, he became Director of Development of the Journal des Finances in 1988, then Director General of Défis magazine and the communication group Sorio in 1995. In 1999, Henri Proglio recruited him as Director of Communication and Marketing for the Cleansing and Transport branches of the future Veolia Environnement group. He became Policy Officer for Stéphane Richard, Orange's future CEO, and in 2006 took over the acquisition of Nîmes and Beauvais airports and made a subsidiary of the group profitable again in Australia. His meeting in 2007 with the Allouche Family, owner of Biologique Recherche, offered him an opportunity in the luxury cosmetics sector. Rupert joined forces with Philippe Allouche and his friend Pierre-Louis Delapalme, who left the Yves Rocher group for the venture. All three invested in R&D, developed the international markets and negotiated with distributors. They internalized production in a quasi-pharmaceutical laboratory. The Biologique Recherche brand is now present in leading beauty parlors and spas in more than 70 countries.
As a researcher at the CNRS, Knight of the Legion of Honour, Laurence Eymard spent her career in the field of climate and ocean-atmosphere interactions until 2017. She supervised and participated in a dozen measurement campaigns at sea (1990 - 2000) and at the same time specialized in the spatial observation of the atmosphere and the ocean surface. She directed the Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat: Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN) from 2004 to 2011. As such, Laurence learnt about the OceanoScientific project on November 14, 2006. With colleagues at LOCEAN and several other laboratories, including Fabienne Gaillard (✞) of Ifremer, she supported and encouraged this innovative approach to offer ocean and climate research data collected at the Air-Sea interface. In recent years, the challenges of climate change and ecological transition have led Laurence to engage in projects involving scientists and citizens, within the framework of the Institut de la transition environnementale Sorbonne Université. In particular, she had led a participatory observatory project on the urban environment.
Laurence Eymard - Director of the Fabienne Gaillard Scientific Committeee
Rémi Bollack - Member of the Board of Trustees
Director and board member of several companies, Rémi Bollack is a graduate of ISG and INSEAD. He was successively a Partner with Arthur Andersen, executive officer for IBM Global Services, then Vice President and Branch Manager for Orange Business Services. Rémi has accompanied many large companies in complex transformation projects based on new information and communication technologies. For several years, he has focused his attention on digital transformation and new models of skills organization and management. He currently chairs the "PremiumPeers" company, a platform of high-level advisors and experts, with a talent community of several hundred consultants and partners, at the service of business transformation, in France and internationally. Rémi's outlook, focused on the future and the major changes involved, is an undeniable asset in favor of the development strategy of the OceanoScientific association in its mission to raise the awareness of the greatest number, in France and beyond, about the necessary preservation of the Ocean for future generations.
Jacques Saint-Marc - Member of the Board of Trustees
Born French in Morocco on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, Jacques Saint-Marc is an economist and urban planner, and a graduate from the universities of Rabat and Paris. Beginning his career with a team of developers of tourist resorts of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, he worked on development studies for the coast of Brittany. A specialist in urban planning, he took part in the construction of leisure bases including that of Saint-Quentin en Yvelines and coordinated the rehabilitation of the Corderie Royale and its site in Rochefort. The French Ministry of Civil Engineering then put him in charge of the quality of Urban Planning, and that of Housing in France. He has ensured quality in terms of daily life by launching a number of diverse interdepartmental programs, such as "Safer Cities and Accident Free Neighborhoods", and "Border Pathway Rehabilitation". He has supervised the development of the Aquitaine coast. Member of ministerial cabinets, of the Commissariat au Plan, advisor to the President of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), responsible for state agreements (Canada, China, etc.) in Sustainable Development, Jacques oversees the quality of water, rivers and lakes and the preservation of the Ocean.
Béatrice Witvoet - Member of the Board of Trustees
Lawyer at the Paris Bar since 1992, Béatrice Witvoet has a degree in European Law from Paris II University – in conjunction with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid as part of the Erasmus program. She holds a Master's degree in International Transport economics and law from Paris I University. Béatrice practiced with Bouloy Grellet et Associés for eight years and then founded LBEW with two other lawyers. LBEW is a niche firm specializing in the maritime sector covering transport, logistics and industrial risks, working for transport operators, marine and industrial insurance players, in France and abroad. In 2004, Béatrice and four other women founded the French branch of the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) network, which now has around 100 members. WISTA is present in forty countries and has three thousand members. Administrator of the French Maritime Cluster and of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Maritime (ENSM), her work involves various projects, including the promotion of the French marine insurance sector, the legal environment of Renewable Marine Energies (EMR), and the attractiveness of maritime business lines for women.
Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet - Honorary President
Founding President of the OceanoScientific Association, created on January 7, 2011, Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet, a graduate of the Ecole des Mines - Paris, worked for 35 years in the information technology sector after his military service in the French Navy. He began his career with Thomson CSF, then moved to IBM and HP, before creating UNISOURCE France, a subsidiary of European telecommunications operators, then SIRIS, a subsidiary of UNISOURCE and the Compagnie Générale des Eaux. Jean-François then joined Capgemini as Chief Executive Officer of the Telecom & Media subsidiary, then BULL as a member of the Management Committee and, finally, Eutelsat as Chief Commercial Officer and member of the Executive Committee. He also chaired the Foundation of the Institute for audiovisual media and telecommunications in Europe” (IDATE). Jean-François is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ecole Sainte-Geneviève - "Ginette" – from which he graduated, but in particular is pro bono Policy Officer for the l’Œuvre d’Orient, a philanthropic association founded in 1856 and placed under the aegis of the Archbishop of Paris to support the work of Christian religious communities in the East.
Cécile d'Estais - General Delegate
The mother of triplets - identical twins Quentin & Malo and Léa - particularly sensitive to the marine environment, Cécile d'Estaisspent 17 years in the international finance industry as a financial analyst specializing in the luxury and cosmetics sectors in London and Paris, with major institutions such as Paribas Capital Markets, NatWest Securities and CDC IXIS (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations); then as Senior Banker at IXIS CIB in charge of designing and implementing financial solutions. In 2006, at the announcement of the upcoming birth of her triplets, Cécile abandoned the strict business suits of a consultant banker to accompany her husband, Yvan Griboval, in the design and development of the OceanoScientific Programme. Throughout the 2016-2017 OceanoScientific Expedition, Cécile firmly steered operations on land while ensuring both the connection between the scientists and the single-handed skipper of the OceanoScientific Explorerand assuming all the tasks of general communication and media, but also the relations with schools and partners. Cécile has been the General Delegate – and Swiss army knife! – of the association since 2013.
Yvan Griboval - Director of the OceanoScientific Expeditions
A self-taught entrepreneur, Yvan Griboval has been in turn a professional offshore racer, print and TV journalist, event organizer and business manager. He designed the OceanoScientific Programme in 2005-06, then the OSC System from 2008 to 2016. The latter enables the automatic collection of scientific data every six seconds, especially on small vessels, and their automatic transfer by satellite every hour to researchers. During the winter of 2016-2017, Yvan successfully led the first OceanoScientific Expedition as part of a single-handed round-the-world tour by sail. That meant 152 days of single-handed sailing including 60 days on an oceanographic expedition in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current around the three great capes, those of Good Hope, Leeuwin, and the Horn. He is now institutionalizing these oceanographic sailing expeditions in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current - in summer as well as in the austral winter - and is also working to equip the ocean racing yachts that sail around the three great continental capes. Yvan is the initiator of the philanthropic association and registered charity OceanoScientific, created on January 7, 2011.
