Local scientists to join floating university project onboard French research vessel   |27 June 2022

The French research vessel Marion Dufresne is 120m long consisting of 650m2 of laboratories © Damian Mooney & Jan Hendrik De Jongh

Three early-career scientists from Seychelles have been selected to take part in a floating university project onboard French research vessel Marion Dufresne.

The interdisciplinary, inter-professional and international floating university project named ‘École Bleu Outremer, Cap sur l’Océan Indien’ will take place from June 27 (today) to July 22, 2022 in the South-West Indian Ocean.

Local scientists Sheena Talma (marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer), Jennifer Appoo (conservation biologist and PhD Fellow) and Magali Rocamora Solé (early career researcher and ocean and climate change policy analyst) will join other researchers, students, and ocean ambassadors from all over the Western Indian Ocean for this unique ocean-based campaign.

The ‘École Bleue Outre-mer, Cap sur l’Océan Indien’ is a multidisciplinary ocean-based training programme led by the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) in collaboration with a wide range of partners, including the French Institute for Development (IRD), the French Austral and Antarctic Territories (TAAF), the Mayotte Marine Natural Park, the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (Wiomsa) and several training centres and universities from the region.

It is a project fully in line with the objectives of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainability Development (2021-2030), as it aims to offer training opportunities for youth who work or study in different sectors related to the ocean, from seamanship to ocean science.

It also aims to promote international regional cooperation, by bringing together youth from the same ocean basin to learn together and from each other in a research and knowledge-sharing environment.

For its first edition, the floating university will take place in the South-West Indian Ocean basin and onboard the emblematic French research vessel Marion Dufresne, hence the specification ‘Cap sur l’Océan Indien’.

Participants of the floating university include students and postgraduates from universities and maritime schools, as well as ocean ambassadors.

Applicants were selected from countries across the region, including La Reunion, Mayotte, Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, Seychelles and Mauritius.

During the campaign, participants will discover various methods and technologies for conducting research at sea. This will cover multiple disciplines such as geoscience, oceanography, marine ecology, and climatology.

Students from the maritime schools will gain hands-on experience in seamanship. Participants will also be communicating and documenting their experience throughout the campaign via social media and documentaries.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Seychelles participants Sheena, Jennifer and Magali are planning to conduct live Zoom calls with local secondary schools to share their experience while on board. Communication on their experience will continue after the trip through talks and presentations with students at the University of Seychelles.

The Seychelles participants shared their views about this opportunity:

Sheena Talma: “It’s a pleasure to have been invited as an ambassador onboard the vessel, I look forward to exchanging experiences and skills with participants. I think that as humans we are curious and inquisitive and being able to glimpse the ocean and learn more about it is one way in which we can get more people to care for it.”

Jennifer Appoo: “This campaign not only gives the opportunity for knowledge-transfer and skill-sharing, it enables to build collaborations and promote a collaborative approach for ocean-based research. This is important for Seychelles, where the ocean covers the majority of our territory and so much of it remains to be studied. I am delighted and feel very privileged to have been selected to participate in this campaign.”

Magali Rocamora Solé: “As a person with a more social science background, I am very excited to gain training in ocean science and to be able to exchange knowledge and experiences with all the participants. I think that acquiring more capacity on ocean-related matters and building bridges within the Western Indian Ocean community will help us face the challenges of today and tomorrow as a region better, especially concerning climate change. I am also very happy and grateful to join this incredible opportunity as a Wiomsa participant and to be able to share this experience with younger generations back home!” 

The journey of the participants onboard this campaign can be followed through Ifremer and the Wiomsa social media accounts.

The floating university project ‘École Bleue Outre-mer, Cap sur l’Océan Indien’ was officially launched during a press conference on June 23 at 10:00 (Paris time) in Paris (France) and included the participation of local researcher Magali Rocamora Solé. The press conference can be viewed at https://youtu.be/VdcL7r1jjo8 for more information about the project.

Contributed