MUSORSTOM 9
Type | Oceanographic cruise |
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Ship | Alis |
Ship owner | IRD |
Dates | 11/08/1997 - 13/09/1997 |
Chief scientist(s) | RICHER DE FORGES Bertrand |
IRD CENTRE DE NOUMEA 101 promenade Roger Laroque BP A5 98848 NOUMEA CEDEX (+687) 26 10 00 |
|
DOI | 10.17600/97100020 |
Objective | Inventory of benthic marine fauna in the Marquesas archipelago. This falls under the MUSORSTOM project. The MUSORSTOM - Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos cruise programme arose from collaboration between the MNHN national museum of natural history and the IRD research institute for development (formerly ORSTOM), and aims to explore and take inventory of bathyal marine fauna in the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean. Since 1976, twenty-four missions have been conducted: in the Philippines (1976, 1980, 1985), the Chesterfield Islands (1984, 1988), New Caledonia (1985, 1986, 1993, 1994, 1999), Indonesia (1991), Wallis and Futuna (1992), Vanuatu (1994), the Marquesas Islands (1997), Austral Islands (2002), Salomon Islands (2000), Tonga Islands (2000), Taiwan (2000, 2001) and Fiji Islands (1998, 1999). This programme to explore the marine fauna is in the tradition of the great expeditions organized between 1870 and 1920, the most famous of them being the circumnavigation by the British admiralty vessel HMS Challenger, which sailed round the world twice between 1872 and 1876. |