Launched by Patrick Louisy in 2002, Underwater Biology trips are now considered an international reference in naturalist and scientific research diving.
To get informed about coming UW Biology trips, click here.
During UW Biology trips, Peau-Bleue scientists get amateur divers to study and understand marine life the way scientists do. Although they are mainly meant to contribute to the scientific knowledge of marine life, these trips offer participants an opportunity to widely enrich their personal experience.
Thanks to UW Biology trips participants, Peau-Bleue is today able to run several scientific programs:
• The Red Sea Fish Watch survey studies coastal fish populations and ecology in the Red Sea and the seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula.
• The spinner dolphin survey aims at better understanding the way dolphins use some reef lagoons for their daily rest.
• The Lessepsian fish survey studies the importance of the ongoing migration of marine species across the Suez Canal, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
• The anemone associations survey studies the different species of fishes and crustaceans living in a symbiotic relationship with large tropical anemones in Indonesia and the Philippines.
26 Under Water Biology trips have been made since 2002 and four others are to take place in 2011. From the beginning, they have benefited of a large media cover (paper magazines, net articles) and they even gave birth to several films presented in underwater film festivals. More and more results from UW Biology trips surveys are now published in study reports, communicated in symposium, or published in scientific journals.
From now on, considering the growing scientific and societal issues of UW Biology trips, the field missions of Peau-Bleue association have developed into a philosophy of scientific cooperation with local partners.
Under Water Biology trips have been quoted as examples of participatory scientific research programs to feed analysis and reflexion in the booklet "Sciences participatives et biodiversité" published in 2010 by the French Institude of training and research in environmental education (Institut de formation et de recherche en éducation à l'environnement). The booklet (in French) can be downloaded here.
