Two missions took place respectively in Avril and June 2019 from New Caledonia on board the Alis, an oceanographic vessel of the French Research Institute for Development (IRD), based in Nouméa.
Their research project: exploring the isolated islands and the seamounts of the Coral Sea to study, identify and assess the marine wildlife found there.
These operations were conducted under the direction of Laurent Vigliola (researcher at IRD, Seamounts programme financed by the French National Agency for Research and the Coral Sea Natural Park) and David Mouillot from the University of Montpellier, Director of Research at the MARBEC (MARine Biodiversity, Exploitation and Conservation) Mixed Research Unit.