THALASSA Marine Research has been commissioned by the municipality of Cannes to conduct an ecological monitoring of the Cannes Underwater Ecomuseum. This ecomuseum comprises six art installations created by the English artist Jason deCaires Taylor, each weighing 10 tons and standing nearly 2 meters tall, inspired by the faces of Cannes locals. These sculptures were submerged in January 2021 in shallow waters less than 10 meters deep, protected within a Zone Prohibited to Motorized Vehicles (ZIEM). Situated a hundred meters from the southern shore of Île Sainte-Marguerite, the largest island in the Lérins archipelago, they are easily accessible by swimming.
This ecological monitoring, conducted by THALASSA Marine Research & Aquanautes Expertise, aims to track the evolution of the colonization of the artworks by underwater fauna and flora, and to evaluate the conservation status of the seagrass beds, specifically the phanerogams (posidonia and cymodocea), near the ecomuseum site.
