June 22, 2023
Adopt a float day
Adopt a Float" day at the Institut de la mer de Villefranche-sur-Mer (Sorbonne University/CNRS)
The “Adopt a Float” day on June 22, 2023 at theInstitut de la mer in Villefranche-sur-Mer (Sorbonne University/CNRS) was attended by Sylvie Retailleau, French Minister of Education and Research, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and Antoine Petit, Chairman and CEO of CNRS.
A host of VIPs were on hand to witness the day’s work by six classes from the Joseph Calderoni elementary school in Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Over the course of the school year, these six classes – some 150 pupils – adopted “Bob-the-float”, a BGC Argo profiling float, whose journey they followed as part of the“Adopt a float” educational program run by Carolyn Scheurle, head of the program, and her team.
Bob the float had been released into the Indian Ocean on October 16, 2022, during the mission led by Explorations de Monaco, by the scientific teams of Hervé Claustre, co-leader of the BGC-Argo international ocean monitoring program.
Students were able to present the work they had carried out during the school year, make new discoveries and exchange ideas with researchers, scientific mediators and guests.
They also visited the “Mission océan Indien” exhibition by artist Rémi Leroy, who was on board during the mission.
Bob-the-float ” works for science, ocean education and sustainable development
A scientific float
The “Bob-the-float” float-profiler underwater robot, which has been sailing in the Indian Ocean since October 16, 2022, is part of a flotilla of ultra-modern robots that contribute to ocean observation by measuring essential ocean parameters.
It is part of the international “One Argo” program, which aims to monitor the health of the world’s oceans in the context of climate change using a flotilla of these robots.
The Institut de la mer de Villefranche (IMEV) is one of the pioneers of this program.
An educational float
In addition to its scientific application, the “Bob-the-float” robot is used by IMEV science mediators in the “Adopt a float” educational program. Like the Joseph Caldéroni elementary school in Villefranche-sur-Mer, young pupils in the Seychelles and Mauritius have adopted other floats deployed during the Monaco Explorations Indian Ocean mission.
Profiter floats are excellent tools for bringing ocean science into the classroom.
1900 students in France and abroad benefited from this program in 2022-2023.
From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean
Initially deployed in the Mediterranean before being returned to the water for the expedition organized by Explorations de Monaco in the Indian Ocean at the end of 2022, the “Bob the Float” robot illustrates a desire to make observations as eco-responsible as possible.
The reuse of these highly sophisticated and costly devices is currently one of the program’s priorities.
Like 4000 other profiling floats, it collects and transmits biogeochemical data, which is then made freely accessible in real time to scientists worldwide.
