Expedition bleue

Introduction to the Association

Although the oceans harbor 80% of life in the world and produce at least 50% of the planet's oxygen, their functioning relies on a very delicate balance. However, the increase in water temperature, acidification of the environment, and deoxygenation, combined with the impacts of overfishing, pollution, and habitat destruction are disrupting this balance. It is therefore urgent to act before irreparably destroying our oceans and our habitat.

The Blue Expedition is a round-the-world sailing trip for the protection of our oceans, which we will start in December 2022, for a duration of 2 years. This journey will be carried out on board a 1986 Sun Kiss 45 that we saved from a grim fate, after nearly 3 years of work carried out in a spirit of eco-design, as this sailboat was declared unfit for navigation due to structural problems.

Who are we? We are four people driving this project: Aurélia, Théophile, Vincent, and Thibault. Although we have different backgrounds - a metallurgical engineer, a sustainable construction engineer, an underground works engineer, and a training manager - we all share a passion for the sea. We practice habitable sailing, sport catamaraning, kitesurfing, scuba diving, and freediving. This common passion for the sea, our need to become actors in its protection, all mixed with a desire to travel, united us around this common project.

Project Description

This project therefore has three intertwined objectives:

- TO ENRICH OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH TO EQUIP PUBLIC ACTORS WITH INFORMATION ON OCEAN POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE. Indeed, it is estimated that plastics already kill 1 million birds and 100,000 mammals per year, while its global production is expected to double by 2050. And this material is not without consequences for human health! To equip political decision-makers by providing them with the necessary data for scientific enlightenment, our Expedition has joined several participatory science programs that will provide data on an international scale (G20 or the United Nations Environment Programme within the framework of Sustainable Development Goal No. 14) through sampling and waste collection.

- CREATE ENTHUSIASM AROUND THE PROTECTION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT. As Jacques Cousteau said, "We protect what we love, and we love what we know."
In this perspective, we have built awareness workshops on the knowledge and protection of the marine environment, in connection with teachers. These workshops will be conducted in about 20 establishments. We will also make interventions at public gatherings and on social networks. All these interventions will be illustrated by our experiences, our samples, and our collections throughout the journey.

- CONTRIBUTE TO THE KNOWLEDGE AND PRESERVATION OF MARINE SPECIES
Finally, we have noted that there is still much to discover about the species that inhabit our oceans. That is why we will conduct campaigns to collect ichthyoplankton (fish eggs and larvae) at the surface using a net that we have built. These samples will help to identify and better understand the distribution of these larvae, about which we currently know little. We will also conduct censuses via audio recordings of cetaceans to better understand their distribution on the surface of the globe and better understand their communication.

We will carry out these missions in 3 oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian) and along the coasts of nearly 40 countries. The crew will therefore travel nearly 37,000 nautical miles, the equivalent of two round-the-world trips in a straight line.

To join the adventure: https://www.expeditionbleue.fr/