Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer

The Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer, also known as the Laboratoire Arago, is a marine station located in Banyuls-sur-Mer (Pyrénées-Orientales) on the Mediterranean coast of France. The marine station is made up of several joint research laboratories operated by UPMC-Paris 6 (Université Pierre et Marie Curie) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and one administrative unit.[1] The buildings and land are part of the UPMC-Paris 6 campus.

Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer

The marine station also houses a small public aquarium and a public garden.

History
Biologist Emil Racoviță diving, photographed by Louis Boutan in 1899 in Banyuls-sur-Mer.

The marine station was founded in 1881 by the biologist Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers.[2]

After founding the Roscoff Marine Station on the English Channel in 1872, the Sorbonne zoologist, Professor Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers, wished to establish a second marine station on the Mediterranean. The site in Banyuls-sur-Mer was selected over another site in Port-Vendres because of a more favorable financial offer by the village.[3] The public aquarium was in operation by 1885.[4]

Construction of the main building began in 1881.[5] The station officially opened in 1882 under the name of "Laboratoire Arago" named to honor François Arago, who was born in the same region.[4]

Prince Roland Bonaparte offered a steamboat for the use of the laboratory in 1890. Named Roland, the ship was destroyed while in her basin in Banyuls during a storm in November 1908.[6]

The Roland in her basin in 1895 in Banyuls

French marine biologist Louis Boutan perfected, while studying under de Lacaze-Duthiers, several techniques for underwater photography. He also developed an underwater flash and a remote control for deep waters using an electromagnet.[7] · [8]

Mission

The Laboratoire Arago and its two sister stations in Roscoff and Villefranche-sur-Mer, share two common missions: promoting education and research in marine sciences. All three sites maintain onsite dormitory and restaurant facilities available to visiting scientists and students in support of these missions.

Directors
  • 1882-1900: Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers
  • 1900-1923: Georges Pruvot
  • 1923-1937: Octavio Duboscq
  • 1937-1947: Édouard Chatton
  • 1947-1964: Georges Petit
  • 1964-1976: Pierre Drach
  • 1976-1989: Jacques Soyer
  • 1989-1999: Alain Guille
  • 2000-2005: Gilles Boeuf
  • 2005-2015: Philippe Lebaron
  • 2015-: Vincent Laudet

References
  1. Guille, Alain (1993). "L'observatoire océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer" (PDF). Recherches Marines: 15.
  2. Colloque International sur l'histoire de la Biologie Marine. (1963). "Les grandes Expeditions Scientifique et la Creation des Laboratoires Maritimes". Vie et Milieu. supplement 19: 1–370.
  3. Rapports et délibérations - Pyrénées-Orientales, Conseil Général. 1883. p. 178-179.
  4. Official site
  5. Colloque International sur l'histoire de la Biologie Marine. (1963). "Les grandes Expeditions Scientifique et la Creation des Laboratoires Maritimes". Vie et Milieu. supplement 19: 1–370.
  6. Fabricio Cardenas (3 December 2014). "Le mauvais temps dans les Pyrénées-Orientales en novembre 1908". Vieux papiers des Pyrénées-Orientales (in French). Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  7. Cárdenas, Fabricio (2014). 66 petites histoires du Pays Catalan [66 Little Stories of Catalan Country] (in French). Perpignan: Ultima Necat. ISBN 978-2-36771-006-8. OCLC 893847466.
  8. Boutan, Louis (1893), ‘Mémoire sur la photographie sous-marine’, Archives de Zoologie Expérimentale et Générale, Tome 1 (Ser 3), 281-324.

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