Recent News
Sound swim raises $6,000Monday, May 05, 2014
Last year’s Round-the-Sound Swim — believed to be one of the largest open swim events in the world — has raised $6,000.
Round-the-Sound Raises $6000 For Charity
Monday, May 05, 2014
The Annual Round-the-Sound Charity Swim blends incredible natural beauty with the opportunity to raise funds for local charities.
Students raise $1,000 for shark project
Thursday, May 01, 2014
A group of young students who collected more than $1,000 for shark research will name the next animals tagged by the Bermuda Shark Project.
BZS’s mission to protect Bermuda’s reefs
Thursday, May 01, 2014
Protecting Bermuda’s marine environment has long been a priority for the Bermuda Zoological Society. Last year, with the support of Hiscox, they launched Reef Watch, an event where members of the community were invited to become Citizen Scientists and participate in an Island-wide effort to help monitor the health of Bermuda’s reef systems.
Catlin Marine Grant to help fund environmental projects
Friday, April 25, 2014
Three local environmental projects will be partially funded by the newly-launched Catlin Marine Grant.
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Latest News
All the latest updates and news from the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo, one of Bermuda's leading visitor attractions!
By Cooper Stevenson
Published Jul 1, 2014 at 8:00 am
A Black Grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci) at Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo. Photo Mark Tatem.
Anecdotal reports on the numbers of predatory reef fish following the weekend’s Reef Watch survey are “not good”, according to Bermuda Zoological Society chief scientist Thad Murdoch.
While Dr Murdoch and the Reef Watch teams still have to analyse the data collected over the weekend, he said a lack of predatory fish on the reefs was not a good sign for predatory fish populations, which play a key role in keeping other fish species in-check.
“Certainly this year and last year people saw much fewer predatory fish than one would expect, based on what a healthy reef should have,” said Dr Murdoch.
“We still have to process this year’s data, but people were mentioning how they hadn’t seen one snapper or one grouper on a whole reef. That’s not good. People should be seeing 40 or 50 snappers and grouper on a reef.”
Around 20 boats carrying volunteer “citizen scientists” this weekend ventured out onto Bermuda’s reefs as part of the annual survey, raising more than $24,000.
Reef Watch — a community environmental monitoring and fundraising project run by Bermuda Zoological Society — aims to advance local knowledge on the health and abundance of critical species of fish and coral in Bermuda.
“What we’re doing is getting people to learn how to identify what a healthy reef looks like and we teach them what types of fish should be on a reef and what kind of abundances they should be seeing, so when they go out to a reef they can tell whether the reef is really healthy or if its not in good shape,” said Dr Murdoch.
However, Dr Murdoch said that reports on reef health were positive. “It sounded like coral health was good. Last year [Reef Watch] was right after a very hot summer, so coral bleaching was a threat and people did actually see it. This year, because it’s the beginning of summer, we didn’t expect people to see bleaching and from what I heard, I don’t think people did.”
In addition to collecting critical data on reef health and fish populations, participants also raised $24,573 in funds for the ongoing protection and conservation of Bermuda’s coral reefs, more than $3,000 compared to Reef Watch 2013.