16th edition of the Deep Sea Biology Symposium

Brest’s history has always been linked to the sea and the oceans. Nowadays, Brest has a leading position in European deep-sea science, technology and industry.

Ifremer has a long experience in deep-sea research and technology with a dedicated deep-sea department (Department of Physical Resources and Deep-Sea Ecosystems-REM), mainly investigating the deep-sea seafloor and the sub-seafloor, biodiversity and the dynamics of deep-sea ecosystems, and the interaction between the biosphere and the geosphere on scales ranging from bacteria to the glacial cycles.

In 1988, Ifremer hosted the 5^th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in Brest. After 32 years, there is still an urgent need for rapid technological developments to access, investigate, understand and protect this unique and remote environment. Furthermore, in the last few years anthropogenic pressures in the deep sea have risen exponentially and we are all aware that the deep sea is a treasure of biodiversity, resources and the last frontier on Earth for biomimicry.

For all these reasons, the 16^th Deep-Sea Sea Biology Symposium will propose two associated events (dates for both to be announced soon):

• A Student Workshop on “Artificial Intelligence and new technologies to describe deep-sea biodiversity”
• A round Table with scientists, stakeholders and companies about deep-sea biomimicry