Our meeting with Tara
Tara is a foundation that researches the marine environment and explores the world. They have done lots of missions, like studying coral reefs and looking at microscopic littering in the Mediterranean Sea in 2014. They have done 11 expeditions since 2003. There are lots of people working on the boat, a cook, the captain, sailors, scientists, an artist and a correspondent.
On Monday 19th January 2026, the 7th graders of the ELCE elective attended an online meeting with a Tara scientist. In the meeting there were many classes from other parts of the world. There was also Lola, a marine biologist specialized in plankton, onboard Tara for one and a half months. She responded to some of our questions.
The boat is 36 meters long, which is pretty big, and it has two masts: it is called a schooner.There are 16 people in the crew and there are scientists.Their main mission for this 2026-2028 expedition is to study the coral ecosystems. For this mission, they will investigate coral bleaching and why corals in Indonesia are more resistant and why they have better adaptation to global warming. They will also explore the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Andaman Islands, a region called the Coral Triangle.
During the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, they saw many animals like dolphins, whales, leatherback sea turtles and what impressed Lola the most was the flying fish. They unfortunately also saw a lot of drifting plastic intertwined with algae.
They left Lorient on December 14th and on Monday, they were entering the canal of Panama, and in 53 days approximately, they will reach Japan, their next stopover.
The scientists onboard spend a lot of time reading, when it’s hot outside they do sports on the deck, they draw, they play board games but they don’t use electronics and do not watch TV.
You can follow their mission on their website: https://fondationtaraocean.
Article contributors: Lucia, Lis, Alejandro, Nadia, Marta, Chloe & Natalia
