First-Time NASA Sponsorship Supports Caribbean Exploration of Reef Fishes by Frenchman Gilles Fonteneau

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First-Time NASA Sponsorship Supports Caribbean Exploration of Reef Fishes by Frenchman Gilles Fonteneau

The Bacardi Family Foundation Joins NASA with a Grant

FLORIDA, CORAL GABLES, Feb. 13 -/E-Wire/-- NASA and the Bacardi Family Foundation may appear unlikely collaborators, but this is exactly the situation in their co-sponsorship of ocean exploration by Frenchman Gilles Fonteneau.

Fonteneau, fashion entrepreneur, adventurer and author, who spent four years as part of Jacques Cousteau's Calypso team, has launched a two-year exploration of the ocean. Aboard a customized, 45 foot French catamaran, he departed late October from La Rochelle, France, traveling to the Canary Islands via Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with a mid-November Atlantic crossing arriving in Antigua in December.

His focus is on the passive acoustic recordings of reef fishes in the Caribbean Sea. Per NASA, "knowledge of temporal and spatial changes in fish aggregations is important in the fishery management of any species, will permit a better protection for the reproduction of the species concerned and protect the future of this important source of protein for the planet."

"As a Foundation committed to ocean conservancy and exploration of the coral reef barrier, we are excited to be part of this project," said Robert O'Brien, Bacardi Family Foundation Director. R. Grant Gilmore, Jr., Ph.D., senior aquatic scientist, Dynamac Corp., Kennedy Space Center, enthusiastically endorses the exploration as the first such NASA sponsored project.

"After 25 years recording and analyzing fish sounds produced in coastal Florida, the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and eastern Pacific, I have never encompassed such a large area, range of islands and continental habitats as the Fontaneau exposition. This work will be indispensable in increasing our knowledge of fish sound production, providing invaluable information to fishery management and to determining the success of marine reserves," Dr. Gilmore emphasized.

Fontaneau, who traces his fascination with the sea back to the age of eight, is uniquely qualified for this work. At nineteen, his articles about a diving tour of Corsica and Sardinia were published in French magazines. Later as an executive for the Givenchy fashion house, he combined his passion for the beauty of the sea with a sense of the luxurious and describes his transition from businessman to ocean explorer as "easy".

"It is a come back to my finer dreams of that time. The international business experience allowed me to be more ambitious and put together a professional expedition with real scientific goals," goals he describes as follows:

"NASA-DYNMACâ¦ Proper recording of particular fishes in Cape Canaveral and locating good spawning areas for future protection of these species.

"NOAA- The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administrationâ¦Survey any bleaching situation on the coral reefs including a visual study of the location and the reality of the expansion. Data will be sent directly to NOAA for analysis and possible action.

"Rosenthal School of Marine and Atmosphereâ¦Install a new Global Positioning System Station that will detect future earthquakes in the Caribbean Islands."

Fontaneau elaborates, "coral reefs are like any city with a division of function. The coral build the apartment structure, sponges filter the water, some fish graze on algae, others establish 'farms' of algae. This system is in exquisite balance unless polluted, over-fished or smothered in sediment. Assessing the condition of the reef ecosystem can reveal problems and paint the way to possible solutions." Coral bleaching may be described as the general whitening of coral colonies due to the loss of symbiotic zooxanthellae from the coral tissues and/or reduction of photosynthetic pigment concentrations. Bleaching can be fatal to the coral if the duration and/or intensity of a stressor are sufficient. Such events have increased during the past 20 years, increasing interest in early detection, the cause, intensity and the environmental conditions of such incidents.

Fonteneau's travels will last some three years. Scientific updates will be reported on the Bacardi website, www.bacardi.com.

Laura Baddish, THE BADDISH GROUP, T: [REDACTED-PHONE] F: [REDACTED-PHONE], email: [REDACTED-EMAIL]

http://www.bacardi.com

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