Mission Bougainville is pioneering a new model for global ocean observation. By combining the operational reach of the French Navy, the scientific excellence of Sorbonne University and its partners, and the frugal oceanography technologies developed by Plankton Planet, the mission will generate an unprecedented, long-term record of ocean microbiome biodiversity across some of the world’s least explored marine regions.

The mission will collect ocean microbiome data from remote areas that are rarely sampled, including the Southern Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Central Pacific, and numerous marine regions that are otherwise inaccessible for security reasons....

02 juillet, 2026 /

To better assess and monitor ocean health and to expand the systematic, long-term sampling of marine microbiomes, the French Navy, Sorbonne University, and the Plankton Planet initiative have joined forces to launch the Mission Bougainville....

06 juillet, 2026 /

Nothing in Louis-Antoine de Bougainville’s family background or place of birth suggested he would become a sailor. He was born on November 12, 1729, in Paris, on the site of the Rue du Temple in the parish of Saint-Merry, not far from Les Halles....

06 juillet, 2026 /