An exhibition like no other on the sea takes place at the MOBE in Orléans

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A deep dive into the North Atlantic. This is what the MOBE in Orléans (Loiret) offers from Friday December 6, 2024 until October 5, 2025. “Odyssey, from reefs to abyss”, a unique and interactive exhibition which will offer visitors the opportunity to discover the sea far below the surface.

To help you learn the mysteries of the deep blue, the museum invites you to follow three characters: Alizée, 15 years old, her grandmother, and their leatherback turtle.

On the program of their trip: coral reefs, abysses with a section on the environmental issues that arise from them .

An exhibition suitable for everyone

In order for this exhibition to speak to everyone, the MOBE has chosen to call on illustrators and graphic designersto tell the story of Alizée, who went on a trip with her grandmother and her leatherback turtle.

We chose illustrators with a graphic style close to that of video games or animated films to break the codes of museum exhibitions and address a wider audience.

But to discover the ocean, you still need to equip yourself. It is therefore a submarine journey that you will be able to follow through dix grands points .

A step-by-step scenario

• The Caribbean beach and the discovery of birds: with tropical coastal ecosystems at the center of this section. Between discovery of mangroves, underwater seagrass beds and coral reefs, a first exotic dive.
• The great departure of the submarine: Alizée and her grandmother head towards the coral reef which is home to 25% of marine biodiversity. Within the reef, many ecological roles are distributed: those who break, those who consolidate the reef, those who filter or regulate invading populations.
• The Sargasso Sea: The Sargasso Sea is located in the North Atlantic Gyre, an area where circular currents trap algae, sargassum, but also plastics.
• Understanding turtle migration: the turtle we are following was born on the coast of Guyana. Overall, this population migrates north, towards an area where cold and warm waters meet, in this case the cold waters of Labrador and the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Areas are renowned for their richness in jellyfish, but also zooplankton and squid.

Life in the deep

• Le large du Greenland : after having traveled through tropical ecosystems, the journey offers a stop in polar environments. Life is very present there although more discreet. The conditions are extreme: cold, significant sunshine and UV rays, darkness for part of the year, scarcity of food, icy and violent winds… Yet life is very present.
• Life in the abyss: life is becoming rarer. The light penetrates less and less, until total darkness. Under these conditions, living organisms have undergone profound modifications during evolution. Some can produce and diffuse light, this is bioluminescence.
• Tectonic plates under the sea: they move and can move apart, overlap, collide or slide relative to each other. This is plate tectonics (formerly “continental drift”). A ridge is an underwater mountain range that forms in a zone of tectonic plate separation.

Return to the surface for our three characters

• Return to the surface: along the coasts, winds blow parallel to the land. This generates ocean currents that bring up cold, nutrient-rich waters from the depths. Nutrients reach the surface and allow the development of phytoplankton.
• The hurricane episode: A hurricane or cyclone refers to an atmospheric area where the air is rotating around an area of ​​depression. This depression often gives rise to clouds and precipitation. Climate change is leading to an increase in the violence of hurricanes.
• Turtle Island:leatherback turtles return to lay eggs on their birth beach, after a very long journey. Although egg laying has been observed, no mating has yet been observed. A leatherback turtle can lay more than 1,000 eggs in 1 year, in several clutches. Many threats linked to human activities weigh on the leatherback turtle, in its different stages of development.

█Practical: Odyssey, from reefs to abysses
Orléans Museum for Biodiversity and the Environment
From Friday December 6, 2024 to October 5, 2025
Free
Reservations on the Orléans Métropole website

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