Always deeply committed to preserving our oceans and supporting research, Filhet-Allard Maritime backs the oceanographic expeditions Polar Pod and Persévérance, conceived and led by explorer Jean-Louis Étienne.

Polar POD is a one-of-a-kind platform for exploring the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica. Remote and hard to access, oceanographic campaigns there are rare and take place only in summer. We need in situ measurements throughout the year: that is Polar POD’s goal. Carried by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the stability of this “vertical ship” in the Roaring Fifties will make it possible to collect valuable data. These are eagerly awaited by the international scientific community because the Southern Ocean, the planet’s main oceanic carbon sink, plays a major role in the climate. It is also a vast reservoir of biodiversity that remains poorly understood.

Construction of Polar POD, which began at the end of 2022 under Ifremer’s supervision, is currently on standby pending the resolution of a dispute. However, the team is conducting scientific missions aboard Persévérance, Polar POD’s supply vessel. For the past three years, this ice-class schooner has been sailing to both poles. Equipped with numerous state-of-the-art autonomous sensors, these campaigns continuously provide research institutions with valuable data on the atmosphere and the ocean.

These missions have demonstrated Persévérance’s oceanographic and environmental performance. One of its major assets is wind propulsion. During the latest campaign in Antarctica (7,000 miles, 50 days at sea), the vessel consumed a total of 20 tons of MGO, equivalent to the daily consumption of a standard oceanographic ship. In addition to a limited carbon impact, the engine is IMO Tier III–compliant, and NOx emissions are treated with urea.

Wind propulsion offers great autonomy at sea, making Persévérance the vessel best suited to carry out long-duration missions in the Southern Ocean. This is the aim of the future expedition: a year-round study south of the three oceans—the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian—up to the edge of the pack ice adjacent to the Antarctic continent. It is called Southern-Ocean 4 Seasons (SO4S) and will run for three years (2027–2030). This exceptional, never-before-conceived campaign will be France’s contribution to the International Polar Year (2031–32).

Before that, however, in February 2027 Persévérance will be in Antarctica, in the Dumont d’Urville Sea sector. This is a pilot campaign for sampling and multi-omics analysis in an extreme environment—a scientific challenge both logistically and methodologically. It is called the Austral-Omic Expedition, an essential preparation for the future SO4S expedition.