MACNA 2011 Presenter Profile: Jean Jaubert

Jean Jaubert's fascination for the underwater world and aquarium hobby started in the middle of the fifties. This fascination took roots in his youth spent paddling in the crystal waters of the South Coasts of the Western Mediterranean Sea and using live sand and live rocks to balance seawater tanks.

In 1956, when he saw the first Jacques Cousteau's 35mm film, his fascination turned into a real passion. And 9 years later, as a M. Sc. student, he met the famous oceanographer in the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco and stroke up a friendship with famous members of his team such as Claude Wesly, Armand Davso, Canoe Kienzy and André Portelatine. Then Jean Jaubert became marine biologist (Ph. D. in oceanography and Doctor in Science) and experienced SCUBA diver practicing all diving types. In 1975, invited by the NOAA, the NASA and the US NAVY, he took part, from the underwater Habitat HYDROLAB and the Johnson Sealink Submarine, to a series of lockout dives simulating space walking in deep sea. At the same time he developed watertight data acquisition systems and carried out in situ experiments that resulted in important findings regarding the physiology and ecophysiology of reef-building corals. However, this intensive underwater work did not make him to forget the importance of ex situ experimentation as well as the usefulness of modern tools of molecular biology. At the beginning of the eighties, he invented the seawater biological purification process later known under the name of MICROCEAN® or JAUBERT NNR SYSTEM and became the first scientist able to raise reef corals in aquarium. A few years later his laboratory-cloned nubbins became as a new kind of lab-rat.

In 1989 he implemented his process in the Oceanographic Museum to set up a 40 m3 reef tank, which is still thriving today. In 1990, with two co-workers, Nadia Ounaïs and Pierre Gilles, he undertook the total renovation of the aquarium that accommodates today a world-unique exhibition of living corals. In 1991, while Jean Jaubert was Professor of marine biology at the University of Nice, the Council of Europe and the Principality of Monaco commissioned him to establish the European Oceanographic Center, a new research center hosted by the Oceanographic Museum and tasked with uncovering the causes behind degradation of reefs and other major problems.

He quickly raised this center to a world-famous level of excellence demonstrated by a number of papers published in the best scientific magazines and reference journals such as Science, Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA). The main discoveries of his teams concern the way coral reefs contribute to the maintenance of great balances of biosphere and the fact that rising CO2 levels and warming temperatures, inhibit calcification and may lead to an erosion of many reefs. In 2002, Jean Jaubert left the University of Nice and the European Ocean Observatory to become Chief Scientist and Expedition leader of The Cousteau Society. It was the beginning of a new adventure. In November 2003, he sailed to the Red Sea onboard of Alcyone, the famous turbosail vessel of Jacques Cousteau, for a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Calypso. His crew filmed the shooting sites of 2 mythical films: The World of Silence and the World Without Sun, respectively Palme d'or in Cannes and Oscar winner of the foreign language film in Hollywood.

In July 2004, Jean Jaubert came back to the Principality and took over as general director of the Oceanographic Museum, a position that Jacques Cousteau had occupied during 32 years. But adventure went on with a raid in the savage Socotra Island, off the coasts of South Yemen. In July 2005, he accompanied H.S.H. Prince Albert II to the Svalbard for a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Prince Albert I, the famous pioneering oceanographer. With his buddies, Patrick Marchand and Bruno Philipponnat, he dived into the icy waters adjoining the icepack to collected rare clams, which fix into their shells substances which analysis brought information of paramount importance on climate evolution and pollution in the Arctic.

Two relatively recent events crowned the scientific career of Jean Jaubert: his promotion to the title of Knight of the Legion of Honor, upon the proposal of the Minister for Research, and the publication of a two-page "Profile" in the famous American magazine Science. Today Jean Jaubert designs and builds ecologically balanced pico, nano and large aquariums.

Demonstration: Acute stress induces the formation of propagule-like regenerative offspring in Xenia sp.

Reefer's Corner - Sunday, September 11 10:05 AM

The formation of propagule-like regenerative offspring in Xenia sp. occurred following an acute stress caused by an accident. The accident occurred, between the 26th and 28th of December 2010, while I was traveling, in my 10 liters closed-circuit nano reef, which functions without any filter, skimmer and even no air. A fluorescent energy saving bulb (which was not firmly fixed) fell into the tank, which has no lid.

When I came back home, the fishes, 2 Amphiprion ocellaris and 2 Pterapogon kauderni were OK, but the inverts were severely impacted. The anemones (Entacmea quadricolor) were shrinking. The Turbinaria mesenterina colony was covered with discolored spots. The Stylophora pistillata and the Capnella had severely bleached. The Xenia (one small colony) had lost all of its polyps and was reduced to a lump of meat attached to the rock. Many mollusks (Stomatella vira), brittle stars and almost all of the amphipods were dead or dying.

As far as I can know this disaster had resulted from some metal poisoning caused by the bulb, which remained an unknown number of hours (perhaps 2 days) in the water. I removed all of the dead animals, rinsed the rocks in a bucket of natural seawater and changed all of the water. And all the corals survived and recovered quite rapidly. After a few days, like a sponge, the remaining lump of Xenia meat started to produce a few creeping regenerative offsprings that were looking like sponges’ propagules. These propagules became more or less spherical and detached. One of them settled on the sand and budded one polyp. At this step, I glued it on an 8 mm long grain of coarse coral sand and fixed the grain on a rock using epoxy putty. Then I collected and fixed on the same rock the largest propagule that had budded several polyps while it was still attached to the remains of the colony. A few days later I noticed that 3 very tiny colonies were growing on rock at the place where the remains of mother colony had apparently disappeared. Since that time all of these asexually propagated Xenia are growing and propagating rapidly.