Recent News

PwC joins pioneering Ocean Tech Mission
Wednesday, November 09, 2016

An Ocean Tech Mission to track “five iconic marine species” in Bermuda to help inform habitat protection at a policy level has been boosted by the news that professional service firm PwC will become a sponsor and mission partner.


Welcome to Callista
Friday, November 04, 2016

Generous donors have joined forces to help buy a new boat for the Bermuda Zoological Society.


Exploring mysteries of the deep
Thursday, November 03, 2016

Scientists often tell us we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of our oceans but Bermuda is at the heart of a mission that intends to change that.


Zoological Society Receives New Boat ‘Callista’
Thursday, November 03, 2016

The Bermuda Zoological Society recently purchased a new 30ft Beachcat boat, Callista, thanks to generous donations from Mrs. Diana Bergquist, the Stempel Foundation, Clarien Bank, Somers Isle Shipping and RUBiS.


Turtle project completes 49th year of research
Thursday, October 27, 2016

The Bermuda Turtle Project ­— a study of seas turtles in Bermuda waters — has completed its 49th year of research.



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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!

Collecting Samples for BAMZ
Royal Gazette
Thursday, June 06, 2013

By Lisa Ray
Published June 7, 2013 at 8:00 am

The crew and research team on-board the 72ft Sea Dragon expedition ship are currently undertaking two expeditions from the Island to find out more about the Sargasso Sea. The Sea Dragon is operated by Pangaea Explorations, and has sailed around 50,000 miles over the last two years as part of a series of research expeditions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

During the missions the team are sending a daily blog, with photographs, explaining what they have been doing and what they have found.

Here is the most recent update from the Sea Dragon.

When Wolfgang offered the Aquarist’s a spot on the Sea Dragon, it was thought this would be a great opportunity to venture to the open ocean to collect specimens for our ‘Sargassum Exhibit’, here at BAMZ.

This would prove especially beneficial since the vessel we normally collect in, was currently out of water due to 

annual boat maintenance, plus the fact that Sargassum weed isn’t normally found close inshore, in bulk, at this time of year.

I believed making time for this trip was important. I’m really glad that I did. Not only did the collecting pay off, but the opportunity to network and team build with a great selection of people proved rewarding.

The bulk of my collection was the actual ‘Sargasso weed’ itself. Of the two species associated with Bermuda, the one we collected is the most Common (Sargassum natans). It differs from the less common one (Sargassum fluitans) by have small spines on its blades.

RG_130607_1a.jpeg
Olivia Drescher assists Lisa Ray in the
search through the sargassum weed

I was fortunate enough to also secure both species of fish associated with Sargassum rafts. The small angler fish, known as the ‘Sargassum fish; (Histrio, histrio), as well as the Pugnose Pipefish (Syngnathus pelagicus).

This Sargassum fish species can attain a length of 6 inches, but the majority of the 5 specimens that I obtained were ½ inch with one exception being an inch in length. These critters’ colour, camouflage them so well among the Sargassum and their fins resemble Sargassum fronds.

The Pipefish is a very slender fish, which is closely related to the Seahorse. These fish can obtain a length of 4.5 inches; the specimens we found were about an inch in length.

The most abundant of critter happened to be the very common Sargassum crab (Planes minutes). Sizes ranged from ¼ to ¾ of an inch, in length. The other species of crab collected was the Sargassum Swimming crab (Portunus sayi). These swimming crabs have broad hind limbs which are modified for swimming.

Also abundant in these critter collection of Sargassum weed, were many, very small, shrimps, of a few varying species.