Change host

Dear reader,
The blog has changed host. Here is the new address: http://medseastareso2012.obs-vlfr.fr

Best regards.

Mesocosms in the media

Two new videos have been added in the Media page of the blog, where you can find all the articles we found in the media related to the experiment.

The two videos have been realised by France 3 Corse, the local anten of the national french chanel.

France 3-national french chanel- video 1

What do we do when you are not here?…n°2

Most of you after the experiment went directly on holidays in Corsica, or with your family. So, when your boxes have left Stareso (and Villefranche) , all major common material (centrifuge, fridges, mesocosms structure….) is back to its place in Villefranche, we (LOV team)…. go in holidays also!! This is why this blog will be idle for a moment.

There will have other post about the first scientific workshop, when the next mesocosm experiment will be anounced (yes, there will have another one….) and when anything worth to be published!!
The administrative responsibles, scientists, student and cooks from Stareso are really sad that the MedSeA team isn’t there anymore. They send us nice email to thank us because we leave the labs very clean but they also announced us that Maki died few days after our departure…

This is the end for the moment. See you soon for more informations!

Villefranche Sur Mer (by Walter)

All right. The LOV team has completed its task of cleaning the Stareso harbor, disassembling the mesocosms and make clear the laboratories. Home sweet home!
But I will miss Stareso, Corsica and this mission for MedSeA Project ..
I will miss the sunrises and sunsets, spectacular landscapes, the madness with colleagues, Winkler party (!) and not just that, all works by night, the alarm set at 3.30 am for the process sampling, the different cultures and shared knowledges.

Alba nei pressi di Stareso (sunrise near Stareso)

It was a wonderful experience for me (super!), where fatigue has begun to be felt at about half the work but not prevented us from achieving our set goals. Everything has been completed, almost everything went smoothly and I’m very happy.
Now we just have to work on the data obtained, as far as I’m concerned about the analysis of O2 and make some considerations .. but I am compelled to share the office of the Laboratory of Villefranche with this researcher …

Samir at home…

and after all..

I hope to see you all together soon!!

What do we do when you are not here ??… n°1

Since Saturday you must all think: but can they do when all the material is charged, there is nothing to prepare in the small Stareso station?
Well , we go to the Fango!! It’s an amazing area at 1h30 from Stareso. The Fango is a river coming from the montain with basins where you can swim in fresh water at 25°C!!! So, after lunch we spend 3 hours there only for relaxing. The divers dried themselves on rocks after the hard unscrewing activity they did Friday.

The landscape is completely different from what we can see in Stareso. Other montains, other vegetation, other local population (there is lot of families with kids going to the Fango) and other fishes (yes there is trout in the river as well as other small fishes).

Our guide (ndrl Jean-Michel) brought us in a small Auberge near the Fango for a ice-cream! Perfect afternoon before coming back to finish the work…

So this is the end, number 2 !

We are even closer to the end today : we just finished loading the truck ! The station seems really empty now !!
We were all scared about this step because we are not numerous (only 9 people from the LOV) and there are lots of things to load. Luckily the truck driver was already involved in the previous mesocosms experiment (DUNE) and he arrived with lots of material to make it easier. In 2 hours everything have been loaded. We managed to make enough space in the small truck to transport the samples in good conditions.

The before/after loading picture!

What’s next? We’ll have a quiet afternoon! We leave tomorrow afternoon, Monday first hour we unload and we can really say the experiment is finished (well never finished because we still have to unpack and store everything in Villefranche!).However this is not the end of the blog. There will be at least one post about how to disassemble the mesocosms. And what is the work after the experiment.

So this is the end!

So Monday was our last sampling day and a lot of people already left Stareso. We have been very busy packing, cleaning and mainly disassembling the 9 mesocosms. The weather was better and we have been able to work quickly being a great team, it is of course very efficient. Jean-Michel,Didier, David and Grigor arrived to reinforce the diving team as a lot has to be done under water. Francis also came back to take care of the logistic on the quay when the mesocosms are being bring back from the mooring. This step really ends the experiment. It was an extraordinary human and scientific adventure and a successful experiment for sure… tiring, yes but hopefully our results are going to meet our expectation,at least, we did our best to make it. As a souvenir, Frederic created nice ‘MedSea’ t-shirts and we are all happy to wear it on the picture! The experiment is over but not this blog, still open for more thoughts and
news…. Until the next experiment!!

From left to right and men (back line) to women (first line): Samir, LoIc, Walter, Thanos, Mauro and Vincent. Raquel, Afrodite, Francesca, Cécile, Anastasia, Martina, Angela, Amélie, Cinzia, Denise, Lisa, Justine and Laure. Missing people: Fred, Andy, Louisa, Tanya, Anggeliki, Karine, Clémence, Eija and Aurélie.

Reportage on Corsican tv 04/07/2012 (in French)

Here’s the link: http://www.telepaese.tv/Nutiziale/Nutiziale/Nutiziale_du_04_Juillet_2012-cbSxkcBAKt .

Last 2 weeks

Here (Villefranche sur Mer) we are at 2 weeks from leaving to Corsica, the other participants will join us around the 17th of June to start the experiment!! We have to build the nine mesocoms and prepare the laboratories before everyone arrives.

From June 4th to 19th the LOV team has to: install the anchors (the mesocosms are fixed to the seabed), build the nine mesocoms (insert the armatures around the bag, prepare the roofs, buoys,…), deploy the mesocosms on site (just in front of the Stareso station) and manipulate the carbonate chemistry (we’ll explain later how we do it). So many things to do but it will be nice moment!!

Pictures of the mesocosms and the Stareso station will come soon!

Last month before departure

Time is flying, in one month (nearly day for day), all the material has to be in France to be send to Stareso! The big 50m3 vans will be full of our material for two months. Packlists has to be exact and we don’t have to forget anything because, even if we are in a land station we’ll be isolated!

One month before departure, the blog is still under construction for the global shape but we also need your contribution to learn more about each participant. You can have a look on the pages of Fred and Laure to see what is expected (if your name isn’t in the list contact us to repare the mistake!).

Hope to see you soon!

Laure and Angela