Mission accomplished for the 7th HOPE-HOPE-VV oceanographic expedition to the South Pacific!
16 days at sea aboard the vessel Antea with a threefold objective:
- Annual maintenance of the HOPE-HOPE-VV instrumented site off the coast of New Caledonia. We surveyed, refitted and redeployed 6 instrumented mooring lines 700 m long framing the HOPE'ORTUNITY smart buoy. These instrumented moorings have been recording complex physical, chemical and biological data for a year in the Pacific, which, combined with the data from the buoy, will enable us to elucidate the mechanisms that lead to carbon sequestration, and the environmental parameters that control it...
A huge thank you to the talented instrumentation engineers from the IMAGO (IRD) and DT-INSU (CNRS) units for their unfailing technical support. - Monitoring the marine ecosystem at very high frequency using equipment that complements that on the HOPE'ORTUNITY buoy. In addition to the flow cytometer, DNA/RNA autosampler and profiling winch (CTD, UVP, nutrients) and particle traps, we were pleased to welcome 2 American teams from Duke University and Texas A&M University to continuously measure nitrogen fixation and net community production. We were lucky enough to sample a diazotrophic plankton bloom! Thanks to Nicolas Cassar and Yajuan Lin for this fruitful collaboration, and to IMAGO and the crew of the Antea, because the pace was so intense!
- Shooting a documentary co-produced by the IRD and Ushuaia TV. We were delighted to welcome director Olivier Husson and cameraman Stephane Correa on board for a colourful adventure that will result in a 52-minute documentary entitled Oases and oceans in the coming months... thank you to them for this great opportunity!
In this cyclonic period, we sailed between 3 tropical depressions, with rough sea conditions, but the whole programme was successfully completed... many thanks to the crew of the ship Antea, always ready to listen to the scientists...