Gears: “Maintaining a healthy environment to obtain biological material”
Lauriane Bisch is a zootechnician at the Ifremer station in Palavas-les-Flots. Every day, she feeds, cares for, and maintains six to seven thousand zebrafish and medaka, model fish whose eggs will be used for research. She describes her work in detail in the video series Rouages produced by the University of Montpellier. Action!
In January 2024, Lauriane Bisch swapped the lagoon of Tahiti for the lagoon of Palavas. Sitting comfortably in the cafeteria of the Ifremer station, with a view of the Prévost pond swept by the February winds, the animal experimentation technician tells us about her return home after eight years at Ifremer in the Pacific. "I started by doing a DUT (university technical diploma) in biological engineering in Montpellier, then a BTS (advanced vocational diploma) in aquaculture in Brittany. I dreamed of training in pearl farming, so I went straight to Tahiti, where I was lucky enough to be recruited by Ifremer. "
“Wear a T-shirt all year round!”
It was then life itself that prompted the young woman to move closer to her native region. "We can't complain, here too we work in a magnificent setting and in the model fish room we wear T-shirts all year round!"Around 40m2, an ambient temperature of 25 or 26 degrees and shelves everywhere filled with aquariums where thousands of small fish frolic. "On the right are medaka, which are found in Asia and are estuarine fish. They live in softened water that is slightly less salty than seawater, but still salt water. On the left are zebrafish, which live in tropical environments but in fresh water."
Every morning, Lauriane Bisch cleans and checks the condition of dozens of tanks using connected multi-parameter probes that provide her with real-time data on water temperature, nitrite levels, salinity, pH, and more."It's a tool we use a lot to check the water quality at any given moment. The goal is to keep them in a healthy environment so we have biological material for experiments." And the biological material in question is the eggs she collects every day from the bottom of the aquariums. The fish she raises are broodstock that are not intended for animal experimentation. "It is their babies that will be used by researchers at different stages of their lives, from embryo to juvenile and even adult."
“Like a dog happy to see you”
Looking at the dates written on the aquariums, we can see that the oldest fish in the model fish room are up to 5 years old. This gives them plenty of time to form special bonds with their caretaker, who not only keeps them in a healthy environment, but also feeds and cares for them every day."It's important for me to work with animals. Since they're fish, you might think there's no interaction, but when it's time to feed or clean them, they all come to the front of the aquarium. It's a bit like coming home and having a dog that's happy to see you."
While she reigns alone over the medaka and zebrafish population, there are five zootechnicians working at the Ifremer station in Palavas-les-Flots. Alongside Lauriane Bisch's small fish are larger species that are more emblematic of the Mediterranean ecosystem, such as sea bream and, above all, sea bass. In the center of Palavas, there are more than 500 live broodstock, preserved and raised to produce wild and selected lines. "We zootechnicians don't do research, but thanks to the work we do every day, we also contribute to the advancement of science."