The French research schooner Tara called at Xiamen on its first-ever mainland China tour from April 2 to 10, 2018. During the stopover, a series of events were jointly implemented onboard Tara and R/V TKK to promote awareness and outreach on scientific research and ocean environmental protection, such as “a live broadcast of Tara’s arrival”, cultural lectures, marine science exhibitions as well as a public open house.
R/V TKK sailed out of her homeport Xiamen to meet her new friend Tara on April 2. The event was broadcast live on Sina Weibo. This live broadcast received 3.1 million hits, and attracted 6.5 online viewers.
R/V TKK sailed to meet her friend Tara at Xiamen Bay. Photo: Guihua Wang
On April 5 public lectures about Ocean Exploration and Civilization were held at XMU. Chris Bowler, professor from École Normale Supérieure, delivered a speech to share his experience in Tara Oceans. Haili Wang, director of Marine Operations, XMU, introduced R/V TKK at the gathering. Afterward, Jinlin Yang, a XMU alumni, unveiled the gist of the lecture on ocean civilization and culture, followed by exciting panel discussions. Nearly 500 people attended the event.
Public lectures about Ocean Exploration and Civilization were held. Photo: Yumeng Wei
On April 6, a press conference was held aboard the schooner. Romain Troublé, Executive Director of the Tara Ocean Foundation, along with Minhan Dai, Director of State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (XMU), and Chris Bowler, an oceanographer from Université PSL and the CNRS, reaffirmed their vision of the ocean as a global system and announced their desire to collaborate on scientific research and outreach.
Crew from R/V TKK and Tara had an informal panel. Photo: Guihua Wang
From April 4 to 9, Tara and R/V TKK’s joint open house attracted over 5,000 locals. An awareness-raising mission was carried out by inviting the public onboard so that they can better understand the ocean, scientific research vessels as well as marine environmental protection.
Locals paid a visit to Tara. Photo: Fan Liu
