Mission Ocean

Who: Chloé & Henrique
Where: French Polynesia
Multihull: Venezia 42
Facebook: Missionocean06

As our project had been slowed down by Covid 19, I took advantage of an encounter that I had with Romain, a science teacher, to go to his middle school and give marine awareness workshops to his sixth-grade classes. I didn’t have time to do a plankton sampling, but with all the pictures and videos, I think that we made a good impact on the students. In Tahiti, as on other islands, the problem is the almost total absence of waste recycling. Batteries and oil are sent to New Zealand, but the rest is burned in the open air, accelerating the rate of plastic fragmentation and contamination of the land and sea. There is no incinerator in Polynesia. As often, the best solution would be to reduce the use of products that are made of or packaged in plastic. They are often not recycled enough or are simply not recyclable. If you yourself, in your company, have implemented actions to reduce your use of plastic, both on the production lines and in the offices, please let me know. I would be happy to discuss and share our experiences. It’s comforting to know that many of us are working towards the same goal. We arrived in Moorea which is a beautiful island where we did some great hiking. We also visited the Centre for Island Research and Environmental Observatory (CRIOBE). I hope to be able to participate in some of their projects and to welcome scientists on board (which is complicated to organize for an itinerant boat). I am still hopeful, because this time, the NGO Pure Ocean is on my side and knows the researchers on the spot. During the school vacations, we went to explore Huahine, a sublime island, with very welcoming people. Two local musicians came to record their songs on board with my singing equipment. We will try to compose a new song together.