IFREMER and the Scientific and Technological Challenges of the Ocean

Summary

L’Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) is a public mission oriented agency. It supports in-house research in marine science and technology and in other French scientific institutions, it operates the French oceanographic fleet (ships and submarines), it is the official expert of the government for fishing resources and the salubrity of coastal waters, and it is engaged in technology transfer to industry.

The Institute’s policy is strongly dependent upon its scientific, industrial and social environment: it has to respond to important scientific and technological challenges, it has to contribute to the solution of problems which the society considers to be crucial for its future. This has motivated IFREMER to publish a strategic plan for the years 1991–95, which gives us the guidelines and the priorities for the coming years and in some areas for the decade. The main lines of this plan are presented here, putting a more specific emphasis on the most prospective aspects in four priority areas: the valorization of marine resources, oceanographic research linked to climate prevision, coastal research, and submarine technology.

The exploitation of marine living resources is an important economic activity. Fishing is limited by the availability of resources, and in Europe by quotas, and aquaculture is strongly dependent upon the quality of coastal waters. The main trend of our strategy consists of trying to valorize to the utmost substances extracted from sea products (fish, weed, bacteria), either for their nutritive value or for their chemical and pharmaceutical applications. In a more distant future, we can imagine the chemical exploitation of bacteria recovered close to hydrothermal sources in the Pacific Ocean by our submarine the Nautile, or the development in aquaculture of new varities of fish produced by gene transfer. These are the most challenging aspects of marine biotechnology.

Research on the evolution of the climate is a most difficult question. It supposes studies of oceanic currents, as in the international WOCE program, and of exchanges of heat and matter between ocean and atmosphere, the understanding of biogeochemical phenomena at the surface and in the deep of the oceans. These phenomena play a role in the carbon cycle which is the core of IGBP programs. IFREMER with other French partners (CNRS, universities, CNES, ORSTOM) and in close cooperation with foreign institutions will be strongly involved in such programs which necessitate in situ measurements (with ships and buoys) and global measurements with oceanographic satellites. In the long term, if we are willing to perform climatic previsions, we should be able to organize at the international level the operational observation of oceans with specific instruments (vessels, sensors on satellites, and so on).

Coastal waters, which cover areas including the continental shelf, are particularly important and vulnerable. Coastal ecosystems fix carbon, they are submitted to fluxes of nutrients coming from the continent (phosphorus and nitrogen) and in some areas to fluxes of chemical pollutants (heavy metals, organic compounds). In some coastal zones in Europe, the conjuction of climatic factors with physical and chemical conditions due to continental activities bring toxic algal proliferations (Dinophysis, Alexandrium minutum). All these phenomena and the necessity of understanding the evolution of the coasts under the influence of currents which transfer sediments motivated a large national effort in France which was launched in 1991, the “National Program on Coastal Oceanography” organized jointly by IFREMER and other French agencies.

Lastly, undersea technology is one of our most important priority areas. It involves research and technological development of new instrumentation, based on acoustics, research on undersea robotics (for teleoperation from a submarine), and on new autonomous and unmanned submarines for the future. The programs are developed in cooperation with industrial partners and in some cases in partnership with European countries.

Oceanographic research is and will be more and more international. Cooperation between IFREMER and Japan has been very active and productive through programs such as KAIKO and STARMER. European countries are actively developing their cooperation in marine science and technology through various schemes, such as bilateral projects or the multilateral programs of the European Community and of Eureka. The prospects of building European oceanographic vessel for high precision oceanic and submarine intervention the “Nereis Project” is one of the most ambitious European projects for the decade.

Oceanographic research is one of the most challenging areas of scientific research as it deals with problems related to resources, environment, origin of life, and evolution of the climate. Its development depends strongly upon the possibility of establishing well-balanced international cooperation.

L’Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) is a public mission oriented agency founded in 1984 by the merger of two former institutes, ISTPM (Institut Scientifique et Technique des Pêches Maritimes) and CNEXO (Centre National pour l’Exploitation des Océans). It is the only French research institution with an exclusively maritime vocation. It supports in-house research and cooperates with other agencies and academic laboratories in marine science and technology. It operates the French oceanographic fleet (ships, submarines, and instrumentation), is the official expert of the State for fishing resources management and the salubrity of coastal waters including cultured shell fish, and is engaged in technology transfer to industry.

Supported by the Ministries for Research and Technology and of the Sea, its laboratories are located on the French coast. IFREMER has a centre in Tahiti (French Territory of Polynesia) and a research station in New Caledonia. The Pacific ocean having always been considered by IFREMER as one of its most important and active “laboratories” (Fig. 1).

The present budget is FF1 billion and there is a staff of 1,800 (scientists, engineers, clerks, technicians, sailors), some of whom are employees in subsidiary companies such as GENAVIR, our fleet operator. IFREMER has an oceanographic fleet with nine ships and two manned submarines, and associated equipment.

The Institute’s policy is strongly dependent upon its scientific, industrial, and social environment. It has to respond to important scientific and technological challenges involving the ocean and to contribute to the solution of problems which the society considers crucial to its future [1]. This means that we have to fix priorities to concentrate our scientific and technological potential on the most promising areas in coordination with French marine policy. This has motivated IFREMER in October 1991 to publish a strategic plan for the years 1991–1995, which gives the priorities and the guidelines for our scientific and technological policy for the coming years and in some areas for the decade [2].

I will present the main lines of this plan here with emphasis on the most prospective aspects in four priority areas: the valorization of marine resources including the development of marine biotechnology, research on coastal waters, oceanographic research, and underwater and naval technology.