Newsletter of the Fondation Pacifique
Nr 1, November 2020
Let’s stay on course!
To hell with the Covid and its procession of shrinking horizons! At the end of this year 2020 marked by the pandemic, we are pleased to send you the first issue of Expeditions, the new newsletter of the Pacific Foundation, and to take you on board with the news of our current and future projects: the Arctic and the Red Sea. More than ever, to better understand the human impact on the oceans and to raise awareness of the sustainable development issues that arise from them, let’s stay the course!
THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION
End of season 1 for Mauritius
SEPTEMBER 18, 2020.. We’re back! At the end of a three-month navigation, the first season of *The Arctic Expedition* has just ended. We have finally docked in Keflavík, Iceland, where our sailboat Mauritius will spend the winter and enjoy some work. Between COVID and icebergs, a small retrospective of our polar adventure.Discover the details and the assessment of this season on our website.
THE ARCTIC CHANGE PROGRAM
On the climate change front
A look back at the The Arctic Change program, jointly led by the Pacific Foundation and the University of Geneva to monitor greenhouse gases around the Arctic Ocean. View the carbon dioxide and methane measurements taken during the first phase of the expedition between Douarnenez, Brittany and Keflavik, Iceland.
THE MICROMEGAS PROGRAM
Plastic in the cod-end
The Micromegas program, conducted under the leadership of the Oceaneye association, brought back in its “sock” the first meso and microplastic samples collected during our first season in the Arctic. Analyses are underway to determine the quantity of these man-made pollutants that infect our oceans even in the remotest regions.
OUR PROJECTS IN 2021
The Arctic Expedition
The second season of The Arctic Expedition, scheduled to start in June 2021, will take us from Iceland to Cambridge Bay, Canada through the Northwest Passage. According to the navigation plan, the Mauritius will circumnavigate the southern coast of Greenland and sail up the Labrador Sea, then into the Baffin Sea before returning to Cambridge Bay via the Victoria Strait.
The Red Sea Expedition
The Red Sea Expedition aboard Fleur de Passion, designed to study the genetics of the coral reefs in this region of the world, should begin in the spring of 2021. This ambitious research program, in partnership with the Transnational Red Sea Center at EPFL, initially planned for 2020, had to be postponed due to the global health situation. It should take place over 4 years on almost the entire circumference of the Red Sea. (Read the article in Le Temps of August 15, 2020 Qui va sauver la mer rouge).
Youth at Sea Program
Next year, about twenty young people from French-speaking Switzerland should once again embark on the Mauritius and the Fleur de Passion, heading north and south, as part of the *Youth at Sea* program. This socio-educational program, conducted in partnership with the Pacifique association, welcomes young people who have had a break with the past, boys and girls alike, for two-month stays on board the sailing ships. For more information: www.pacifique.ch.
INFORMATION FROM THE FOUNDATION
THE Pacific Foundation in the Media
La Suisse se profile sur les petites plateformes de recherche en Arctique, Heidi.news, 12 juin 2020
Qui pour sauver la mer Rouge ? Le Temps, 15 août 2020
En Arctique avec Pierre Baumgart, RTS la 1ère, émission Prise de terre, 19 septembre 2020
Our book has been awarded
On September 29, 2020 in Paris, we were honored to receive the “special mention” of the Prix Éric Tabarly 2020 for the best sea book for our book “Dans le miroir de Magellan, le rétrécissement du monde” (In the Mirror of Magellan, the Shrinking of the World). Awarded by the Naval Academy Alumni Association, the prize was presented at an official ceremony in one of the salons of the Military Academy in the presence of representatives of the Pacific Foundation and the publisher, Ivan Slatkine. A well-deserved reward for the crew and the twenty artists who took part in this adventure.
Dans le miroir de Magellan
The book retraces in texts, maps and exclusive illustrations the 4 and a half years of human adventure of The Ocean Mapping Expedition.
Consisting of short colourful stories and testimonials, the book takes us to the heart of the adventure and makes us relive this formidable journey and its different facets mixing science, education and culture.
