Recent News

Bermuda Wild Dolphin Project
Monday, August 29, 2016

Underwater mysteries - Researchers try to learn more about a marvel of the Ocean.


Video: Local Lionfish Experts On PBS Newshour
Thursday, August 25, 2016

Bermuda is featured in a PBS Newshour program about invasive lionfish, with scenes of the island shown, while local marine experts, in conjunction with visiting scientists, appear in a five minute segment that also reveals plans for a prototype lionfish-culling undersea robot.


Ocean Tech Aims To Inspire Young Women
Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Global marine research project Ocean Tech is aiming to inspire more young women into science and engineering via a media campaign that focuses on the team’s leading female scientists and engineers.


Female champions of science
Thursday, August 18, 2016

The global research project Ocean Tech, whose chief scientist is Bermuda’s Gretchen Goodbody-Gringley, is encouraging more young women to study science and engineering.


Island to become hub of marine project
Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Bermuda is set to be the hub of a new international research project intended to justify the protection of marine environments worldwide.



About

Governance
About Us
Board of Directors
Contact Us
Newsletter
Latest News
Gift & Bookstore

Contact

General Inquiries

(441) 293-2727

info@bzs.bm


Latest News

All the latest updates and news from the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo, one of Bermuda's leading visitor attractions!

Island’s turtle mystery unsolved
Royal Gazette
Monday, October 10, 2016

Owain Johnston-Barnes
Published Oct 10, 2016 at 8:00 am (Updated Oct 10, 2016 at 12:46 am)

RG_161010_1a.jpeg
Historic discovery: almost 90 turtles hatched last summer

Mystery surrounds the origin of turtle hatchlings that shocked the island last summer.

Described by some as Bermuda’s “natural history event of the century”, almost 90 green turtles hatched last August at Builder’s Bay — the first recorded turtle hatching on the island for more than 90 years.

Despite genetic testing of several hatchlings who died before reaching the water, the origin of the turtle remains unknown.

Some believed that the hatchlings were the delayed result of the Operation Green Turtle transplant operation between 1968 and 1978, in which turtle eggs were brought to the island from Costa Rica by David Wingate.

Conservationists had hoped the turtles would return to Bermuda to nest when mature. Female turtles reach sexual maturity between the age of 25 and 35, but a turtle laying eggs for the first time at the age of 40 is not impossible.

RG_161010_1b.jpeg

Meanwhile, a second theory was that the female turtle could have come from the Florida population, which has boomed in recent years as the state has increased its own conservation efforts

However, according to a recent article in Hakai Magazine, genetic tests have found that there is a less than ten per cent chance the turtles descended from either Floridian or Costa Rican stocks.

Ann Meylan, a Florida-based sea turtle biologist who was on the island at the time of the hatching, working with the Bermuda Turtle Project, told the magazine that she collected tissue from three dead hatchlings, sending the samples to a genetics expert at the University of Georgia.

Dr Meylan suggested to the magazine that the turtles might have migrated from Mexico, which also saw an increase in turtle hatchings last year, but added: “The female turtle’s origin will have to remain a mystery for the time being.”

Green turtles were once very common in Bermuda, but use of the turtles for food and the increase of pests like rats severely diminished their numbers.

The hatchlings were first discovered by a member of the public, who noticed one turtle attempting to cross the road near the beach. He took the animal to the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo, and a search of the area revealed almost a dozen of the animals struggling in long grass.

Researchers later found a total of 87 eggs buried in the beach, the majority of which appeared to have successfully hatched.