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Julien Leblond

Julien Leblond

Julien Leblond

Marine biologist, technical diving and rebreather instructor

 

Julien Leblond's first breath underwater occurred in Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean island, with his uncle in 1992. He grew up in the magnificent Reunion Island, in the Indian Ocean where he spent as much time as he could in the lagoon or on the reef. Very curious by nature he was excited about discovering and understanding all kinds of marine life’s mysteries!

He naturally chose to study marine biology afterwards and obtained a master’s degree in oceanography at Marseille’s Oceanology Centre, moving on to a professional master degree in Ecological engineering and biodiversity management at Montpellier’s University of Sciences, France.

Julien Leblond

Julien completed work placement in 2009 at Andromède Océanologie, learning about consultancy work and discovering rebreather diving. It was here he decided to embrace diving, science and teaching as a full-time activity. To do so, he completed his Sports Instructor National Diploma in Montpellier and became the Manager of Laurent Ballesta’s diving school, the main activity being focused around the training and transmission of knowledge in marine biology.

He became a rebreather instructor for the French underwater sports and study federation (FFESSM), and after four years in Montpellier, he moved to La Ciotat, a town close to Marseille. He continued his training to reach the CCR hypoxic trimix diver level and became a technical diving instructor (trimix, rebreather, etc.) for IANTD under the supervision of Jo Gallien, former French director of IANTD.

Julien Leblond

Julien taught technical diving in Marseille’s region for three years and was also involved in different scientific missions for the universities and NGOs in the Indian Ocean (Madagascar, Seychelles, Tanzania) and south-east Asia (Indonesia, West Papua) using rebreathers for deep (>100m) open sea sampling of marine life or shallower open circuit assessments on coral reefs.

He moved to Sydney the last march and flew to Tahiti in July to join Under The Pole III (2017-2020) as the Expedition leader Ghislain Bardout’s dive buddy and diving co-director on the Polynesian leg of the expedition. This innovative underwater expedition focuses on studying mesophotic corals of the five Polynesian archipelagos, from the surface down to -150m.

Julien Leblond