Communication of the last months
Presentation of the IOT project at the IUCN World Conservation Congress
After Hawaii in 2016 and Jeju in South Korea in 2012, the third edition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress was held in France, in Marseille in September 2021.
Alongside other scientists and engineers from CNES, the Conservatoire du Littoral, INRAE, IRD, MHNH and Ifremer, Anne-Laure from Ifremer's Indian Ocean delegation was present from 4 to 7 September under the Biodiversity Dome installed for the occasion within the Nature Generation Spaces.
In the form of speed-searching, mystery objects or photos, mini-conferences or "draw and win", it presented to the general public and the scientific community some of the research carried out by the delegation for the knowledge and preservation of biodiversity, particularly through the "Indian Ocean sea Turtles" (IOT) project.
Science Festival 2021
Like every year, Ifremer is happy to participate in the Science Festival in order to present fun activities to schools and the general public around scientific projects such as IOT, FLOPPED, IPERDMX or Recifs3D carried out by the Institute's Indian Ocean delegation. The 2021 edition was marked by its originality!
A first day of activities was held on 5 November in front of the Kélonia marine turtle observatory in Saint-Leu, on the west coast of the island, alongside other research organisations, associations and protected area managers. During the day, the students who came in large numbers with their teachers were able to discover a STAVIRO, a system equipped with a rotating camera that can film marine life discreetly without the intervention of divers, often causing fish to flee, and which is deployed in Reunion Island at depths of up to 80 metres as part of the IPERDMX project.
Another technological innovation, the new IOT tags for monitoring juvenile turtles, were of particular interest to the students, who were able to see up close what they contain and how they are made.
The originality of this edition lies in the heart of the island. For the first time, the Science Festival went to meet the children of La Nouvelle, one of the islets (hamlets) of the Mafate cirque.
Of the three cirques in Reunion, Mafate can only be reached on foot (after several hours of walking) or by helicopter. No roads have been built, limiting access to the coast and the sea for its inhabitants.
Chloé and Matteo from the Indian Ocean delegation went to Mafate for three days (from 15 to 17 November), backpack on their backs, to present Ifremer's projects to the students of primary schools of La Nouvelle and Marla. On the programme: fish counting using STAVIRO videos, discovery of tags to track turtles and diving to a depth of 1,700 metres on a hydrothermal vent using virtual reality helmets.