70Isea&iISPRING-SUMMER 2010Ocean initiativesIncreasingly, new initiatives for thepreservation of our environment arefocusing on our oceans. sea&ilooks at some of the key projects worldwide 4myplanetLaunched during the Monaco Yacht Show 2009, Alexia Barrier's4myplanet project (outlined in sea&i17) is a bid to raiseawareness about the importance of protecting our oceans forfuture generations. The project aims to highlight to sailing andyachting communities that, by collecting data, everyone cancontribute significantly to the wellbeing of the environment. Sofar, the combined scientific and educational approach of theproject has met with great success. Barrier is currently undertaking a solo circumnavigation, forwhich she has partnered with SeaKeepers International (seebelow), using its SeaKeeper 1000 system to collect essentialmarine data for two scientific research institutes: Ifremer inFrance, and the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration (NOAA) in the US. Following her circumnavigation, Barrier intends to fly the4myplanet flag while taking part in the internationallyacclaimed Vendée Globe Challenge in 2012 on board her racingboat, supported by Wally Yachts and Only Yacht, among others. For more information on Barrier's projects, see page 80, and visitwww.4myplanet.eu The International SeaKeepers SocietyThe International SeaKeepers Society was established in 1998by a small group of yacht owners who were concerned about thedeteriorating state of our oceans. Their initial intention was todevelop (and install on their yachts) a compact, automated andcost-effective ocean and atmospheric monitoring system inorder to supply scientists with data on the health of the world'soceans. The resulting award-winning SeaKeeper 1000Toceanographic and meteorological monitoring system is a fullyautomated, modular, scientific data-acquisition devicedesigned to monitor weather and surface ocean?Photography: J.F. Beauséjour

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