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Splashing out: Atalante is part of the IFREMER fleet that may move to the new port at Brest. Credit: G. VINCENT/IFREMER

Nazi Germany recognized the excellent strategic position and geography of the French port Brest, and installed its U-boat base there during the Second World War. Now France plans to spend FF39 million ($5.4 million) building a scientific port there to support its extensive research fleet and oceanographic campaigns.

The French marine research agency, IFREMER, has the second largest research fleet in the world after the United States. With seven large research ships, two manned submarines that can dive to 6,000 metres, and a series of robotic and other seagoing facilities, the fleet is comparable to that of the United Kingdom.

Around half of the agency's 1,700-strong workforce is already based in or around Brest, which is also home to marine laboratories from several universities and the national basic research agency CNRS. The other large concentration is in Marseille, for Mediterranean-related research. Brest is also home to the French Institute for Polar Research and Technology.

But its working conditions are less than ideal, explains Joël Quérellou, director of the IFREMER centre in the city. Research vessels share the commercial port, and specialized support and research facilities are lacking. IFREMER's own laboratories are spread out over four sites.

The new plan, says Quérellou, who is the main architect of the project, will concentrate 200 support staff and facilities in a dedicated scientific port alongside the commercial port.

The infrastructure available at Brest's vast military port is better than that available at the trading port. But the option of locating the scientific port there has been discounted, mainly because security considerations could delay ocean research campaigns involving foreign scientists.

The money for the project is coming from regional and state funding, and has not been difficult to muster. The military arsenal is in decline, with job cuts of 350 this year reducing the workforce to 4,000, and the government is keen to boost alternatives for growth in the region.

This week, the Océanopolis marine theme park reopens in the area, for example, after a FF250 million refurbishment. Its vast aquariums and displays, the outcome of a joint effort between the local scientific community and the centre, are expected to attract 600,000 visitors annually.

Quérellou says that in the past these local factors have been imperative, but he now intends to explore Brest's role in Europe's overall marine research. Not before time, says Pierre Papon, a former director of IFREMER. He argues that national initiatives can no longer afford to be pursued in isolation from their European context.

Although France, Britain and Germany have agreed to cooperate in the use of the 40 or so existing research vessels (see Nature 379, 576; 1996), and some ships have been built jointly — the Franco-Spanish Thalassa, and a smaller Franco-Italian ship, L'Europe, for example — there is a need for greater cooperation, such as in the planning of future needs for vessels.

A proposal to create a European maritime research agency (see Nature 392, 323; 1998) now seems unlikely to be realized, a lighter coordination being preferred by many European countries. This idea will be on the agenda of a European Union-sponsored conference, Ocean 2000, to be held in Hamburg, Germany in August.