On board the floating science lab making its way around Europe's coastline

Since April 2023, a team of scientists has been collecting data from around Europe's coastline on a mission which will run until July 2024.

Transcript

00:00 We are in Lyon about to board the Tara Ocean boat. This may seem like your average sailing

00:06 boat, but it`s in fact a floating science lab. Since April 2023, scientists on board

00:11 have been tracking the health and pollution levels in water. But for a few weeks, the

00:16 boat has docked here on the banks of the Rhone River.

00:19 After France, the boat will travel through Spain and Italy before arriving in Athens

00:23 in July. We spoke to the boat`s captain, Martin Hertog.

00:26 The purpose of the mission "Tara Europa Trek" is to measure the anthropic impact of human

00:33 beings on the coast, mainly because the coast is a place of enormous biodiversity. It`s

00:40 never been done before. It`s something that is done on a scale of the whole of Europe,

00:45 so it`s 22 European countries.

00:48 At the heart of the Tara lies a converted boat cabin where machinery is stocked.

00:53 The role of the boat in the Sano is to collect data. We track about 4,000 chemical products,

01:00 including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, which have been listed. And we look at whether

01:04 we can find them on land or sea, and what are the interactions with microorganisms.

01:07 The Rhone crosses through Switzerland and France. It is one of Europe`s largest rivers, but

01:12 also one of its most polluted, as the Tara Foundation`s head of public affairs explains.

01:17 It`s a particular river with a very, very large industrial, chemical and plasturgical

01:24 production pool. The goal is to have a global vision of our continent, of what is happening

01:31 and of what are the priorities. So, it can be global priorities, and it can also be

01:36 priorities basin by basin, basin by basin.

01:39 In 2023, the EU implemented regulation aimed at restoring at least 20 percent of the land

01:45 and sea areas across Europe by 2030. But does pollution at a local level have a wider European

01:51 impact?

01:52 Chemical molecules are circulating, they are circulating in the world. We will find them

01:56 in the Rhone, we will find them by nature, in the seas, in the oceans. We will also find

02:00 them in the atmosphere. So, there is no border to pollution. We must be aware that everything

02:04 that affects nature, somehow, affects it globally.

02:07 .

02:08 (thunder rumbling)

02:11 (whooshing)