Planning an oceanographic expedition
Planning an expedition starts with submitting mature and innovative research projects, most often in collaboration with French, European or international academic bodies and/or partnerships with industry.
These projects are reviewed and approved, sometimes after several submissions and years of waiting, by the National Offshore Fleet or Coastal Fleet Commissions who then classify them by priority.
Next, the Naval Operations Division of the management of the French Oceanographic Fleet programmes them on their vessels according to a schedule that assesses ship availability and rotation, geopolitical and health conditions of the countries visited, etc. From the moment a mission is scheduled, we launch the procedure for requesting the work permits from the countries concerned by our activities. Local embassies are involved in assisting with this procedure.
- Every country with access to the sea has territorial waters (up to 12 miles from its shores) over which it has juridiction.
- Then there is an area called the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in which the country also has rights.
- Outside of these two zones is the international zone where authorizations to conduct scientific explorations are not required
So, for many of us our job is to board the ships of the French oceanographic fleet on a regular basis, in order to accomplish our scientific research missions. We will now explain how we prepare these campaigns and our performance of these from start to finish!!!