Recent News
Students bring festive delight to AquariumWednesday, December 07, 2016
Their mission was to put a smile on children’s faces.
Support For Ocean Tech Continues To Grow
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Support for Ocean Tech’s first mission in Bermuda continues to grow, with Bermuda International Shipping Ltd. [BISL] joining with PwC, The Atlantic Conservation Partnership and Henrik Schroder from iTDNA as a sponsor of the Ocean Tech project.
BAMZ attraction Darth Vader dies
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Darth Vader, a grouper at the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo known for his affection for belly rubs, has died.
Neil Burnie charity aims to build on success
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
In less than 20 months the Neil Burnie Foundation has helped middle school students get their first taste of the open water, funded the tracking of turtles and provided vital financial support for Dr Burnie’s own Bermuda Shark Project.
Shipping firm backs marine research project
Saturday, November 26, 2016
A Bermudian shipping firm has thrown its support behind a groundbreaking scientific research project to track and film marine life.
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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 Sarah Lagan, Sub Editor/Writer
Wednesday August 28, 2013 8:40 AM
There is still time for volunteers to sign up to this Saturday’s Reef Watch event which will use teams of volunteer citizen scientists to monitor the health of Bermuda’s economically important reef systems. Nearly 20 boats are already signed up, each raising at least $500 towards reef research. Volunteers decide what time to leave — the research is estimated to take about one hour and a volunteers’ dinner will take place at Barr’s Bay Park at 4pm. There will be a training session this evening where Thaddeus Murdoch, Chief Scientist at BREAM (Bermuda Reef Ecosystem Analysis and Monitoring Programme), will train the teams on fish and coral ID and how to collect data using specially designed data slates (see below for details).
REEF WATCH is a volunteer-based research and fundraising
event taking place this Saturday using ‘citizen scientists’
to monitor the health of Bermuda’s reefs systems.
*Photo by Chris Burville
We spoke with Dr Murdoch about the importance of this event going forward
How much is this event going to help the BREAM team at BZS with its research?
This will be very helpful with our research. BREAM has been good at getting external support, but the loss of core funding affected our ability to attract external funding. The Reef Watch initiative will provide needed financial support and will give folks on the island a chance to be part of the research programme.
What will the money go towards?
The funding will go to support coral reef research by BZS scientists, including myself and my BREAM programme. Since
2002, my team has mapped all the reefs and other marine habitats in Bermuda, and then collected baseline data from over 180 sites where we measured the condition of coral reefs, seagrass meadows and fish stocks across the island down to 120ft depth.
The BREAM programme has trained 15 Bermudian undergraduate and graduate students, as well as over 20 university students.
What new research is taking place?
Starting this year we will start Reef Watch Plus in which we will start monitoring a subset of around 50 sites located across all zones of the Bermuda reef atoll. Our more intensive scientific surveys will complement the Reef Watch citizen science data and information on reef health from both sources will be made available to the public as it becomes available.
Our primary goal is to empower the public to understand that a healthy reef system and abundant fishes are critical to our survival here on our small island.
Could this be an annual event?
We definitely plan for this to be an annual event. We are already working with (key sponsor) Hiscox Re to plan the 2014 event. Also we want to empower the Reef Watch citizen scientists to monitor the reefs throughout the year, and we will post new data to the ReefWatch websites at www.bermudaBREAM.org and www.bzs.bm.
Visit www.bzs.bm to register a boat and team of four to take part in the Reef Watch. Each boat must raise a minimum of $500, sponsorship forms are online. A training session takes place tonight at the Bermuda Aquarium from 6pm until 8pm.