One of the three largest fleets in Europe, France's oceanographic research fleet is getting a makeover.
From the depths to ocean-atmosphere interaction, France's oceanographic fleet has been helping to meet today's major challenges in marine science and technology for 50 years. Ifremer1, which manages this fleet, has just unveiled its new 2035 roadmap for its modernisation and renewal.
Four ocean-going vessels and more
The French oceanographic fleet consists of four deep-sea vessels (the Marion Dufresne2, the Pourquoi pas?Atalante and Thalassa), which can operate non-stop for 2 to 5 weeks and can accommodate up to 40 scientists3 ; 6 coastal and semi-coastal vessels, 4 of which work in mainland France and 2 in the French overseas territories, which can carry out campaigns lasting around ten days; 7 station ships operated by the CNRS, which go out by the day, and underwater or sampling devices such as Victor 6000 - an ROV4 carrying out observation and intervention missions at depths of up to 6,000 metres.
With these multidisciplinary research vessels, the scientific community can explore water columns and marine currents, carry out underwater cartography, study biological or geological processes on the seabed, analyse underwater biodiversity, carry out palaeoclimatology studies and much more...
Since 1 January 2018, Ifremer has been operating all these resources for the benefit of the French scientific community, giving it access to all the world's oceans and seas, excluding the polar zones. Until now, the fleet was managed by four public operators or research organisations, such as the CNRS, which piloted several coastal vessels and its station ships. "Our fleet is one of the three largest in Europe, alongside Germany and the UK, and can sail in all oceans - the only one with Germany," reports Olivier Lefort, director of the oceanographic fleet and a former naval engineer and architect. "The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation wanted to integrate all these vessels to ensure that the French oceanographic fleet was better structured for the benefit of the scientific community and all its users", he explains, pointing out that the TGIR5 has an annual budget of just over 70 million euros6. But several of these vessels are beginning to age, and it was time to breathe new life into the fleet.
On the road to 2035
Among the major changes planned in this roadmap is "the end of activity in 2031 for the deep-sea vessel Atalante, which will see its successor enter service. As will the Marion Dufresne and the Thalassa, from 2032. Mathilde Cannat, a researcher in marine geosciences at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris7, is very familiar with these ships, having taken part in more than thirty campaigns and sailed on all the ocean-going vessels in the fleet. "Each one has its own specific characteristics, and depending on the geographical destination, the size of the scientific team and the instrumental requirements, the project will be carried out on this or that vessel", explains the scientist, recalling a campaign on the Thalassa, the smallest of the deep-sea vessels, whose work focuses largely on the ecology of fish populations and the assessment of species exploited in the Channel, Bay of Biscay and North Sea.
For the record, the Marion Dufresne is "the largest of all ocean-going vessels". The reason for this? It's a multi-purpose vessel which, as well as carrying out oceanographic research, also supplies the French sub-Antarctic islands8 on behalf of the TAAF9 and takes on board technical and scientific staff who go to work on these islands, as well as a few tourists. But over and above her good looks, she also has the giant corer CALYPSO, making her one of the only ships to collect sediment cores up to 60 metres long - with a world record of 70 metres during the Crotale campaign in 2019.
In the Atlantic and Mediterranean, two mid-shore vessels will replace, respectively by 2025 and 2030, the mainland coastal vessels Thalia - a multi-purpose vessel operating in the Channel and Bay of Biscay - and L'Europe - a catamaran of more than 29 metres operating mainly in the Mediterranean Sea and dedicated to fisheries research10 and the coastal environment. The mid-shore vessel Antéa11 will reach the Pacific at the end of 2022 to replace the Alis, pending the construction of a mid-shore vessel for the Pacific. These changes will provide the French oceanographic community with larger vessels and the ability to deploy underwater systems in the coastal zone as well as on the continental shelf. In terms of equipment, a new-generation deep-sea ROV will be built by 2025, while a Survey vessel (AUV 6000 Ulyx12) unveiled last October will give French teams a deep-sea AUV that is consistent with deep-sea intervention vessels. "We also want to make the fleet greener, with energy optimisation targets for both the construction and operation of the fleet," emphasises Olivier Lefort.
"Going to sea takes 3 years of preparation".
The oceanographic research community in France represents 3,500 scientists who regularly apply for access to campaigns on the ships of the French Oceanographic Fleet. Each year, more than 1,000 scientists, engineers and technicians embark on 40 missions on ocean-going vessels, 140 missions on coastal vessels and 300 missions on station ships.
For a mission to be accepted, research teams have to put together a project that fits in with the fleet's programmes and submit an application two years in advance. Applications are then peer-reviewed and ranked by a scientific committee on the basis of these reviews. Once an application has been prioritised in this way, Ifremer's programming team defines a route and a vessel according to imperatives, objectives and constraints. "For example, if the research project involves a seismic campaign, we need to define a working period during which mammals are not present in the area", explains Olivier Lefort. The sequence of tasks must also be planned and supervised, and "30-day campaigns on an offshore vessel are major projects", he stresses. Cécile Guieu, a researcher in marine biogeochemistry at the Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche13, who has organised and participated in numerous campaigns at sea, agrees. "Going to sea takes 3 years of preparation. Once a team has been put together, the applications have to be submitted to the Fleet Commission, then funding applications have to be submitted for the analyses and instruments, and the scientists and equipment have to travel to the ship". For Cécile Guieu, the most important quality for sailing is adaptability. "On the boat, it's an incredible rhythm, we work day and night and at weekends, but it's a very special atmosphere on board", she says, recalling a night session when she was pulling up a corer with the ocean as far as the eye could see and not a light on the horizon.
Health crisis and port closures
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic - and the emergency closure of many ports - had a considerable impact on the fleet. "At that time, the Thalassa had just returned from the African coast. L'Atalante, at the gateway to Peru, had to interrupt its campaign, but remain in the area to recover the equipment. The Pourquoi pas? was in the Mediterranean at the time and we gave her the order to return", recalls the Fleet Director. From 15 March to 15 August, the oceanographic fleet's activities came to a complete halt. Thereafter, they resumed according to a very strict protocol. "The crews had to confine themselves for 15 days and carry out two PCR tests. Now we're asking for 7 days of self-containment," says Olivier Lefort. In 2020, only half of the scheduled campaigns could be carried out, "we are trying to reschedule those that could not be done, and for 2021 we have decided not to make any more stopovers abroad".
Recovery in all four corners of the seas and oceans
But there are still some exciting missions planned for 2021. The Marion Dufresne is currently in the Southern Ocean with 48 scientists on board for the SWINGS bio-geochemistry mission, which aims to gain a better understanding of the chemical elements in the south-western Indian Ocean. The Pourquoi Pas? headed for the Indian Ocean at the end of 2020 to carry out a series of missions in the Mozambique Channel. The first, SISMAORE, led by BRGM, the French national geological survey, and CNRS, aims to fill a knowledge gap in the Mayotte region, which has recently been hit by a major seismic crisis. This will be followed in April by the GEOFLAMME mission, using the ROV Victor6000 to study the seismo-volcanic crisis underway in Mayotte. As for Atalante, it resumed in mid-February with the SUMOS oceanography mission in the Bay of Biscay, led by the Physical and Spatial Oceanography Laboratory14 with a dual objective: to study the physical and energetic processes linked to exchanges at the air/sea interface and to validate the Franco-Chinese CFOSAT space mission dedicated to measuring wind and waves. Finally, the Thalassa began its 2021 programme with the IBTS (International Bottom Trawl Survey) mission, which is studying the state of ecosystems and fishery resources at the end of the English Channel and in the North Sea on behalf of the European Union.
50 years of construction
The history of the Fleet goes back to the 1970s with the creation of the Centre national pour l'exploitation des océans (CNEXO) in Brest, which a few years later joined the Institut scientifique et technique des pêches maritimes (ISTPM) to become Ifremer. In the 1990s, Ifremer built the Atalante and the Thalassa, before the Alis and the Antea, the mid-shore vessels of the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), joined the ranks of the French oceanographic fleet and the coastal and station ships of the CNRS. The Marion Dufresne, for its part, is the property of the French Land Administration.