Recent News
Historic deep sea dive off Bermuda to be celebrated in New YorkWednesday, August 13, 2014
A New York institution is this week preparing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of naturalist William Beebe’s historical Bathysphere dive off the coast of Bermuda.
Turtles fall victim to boats and fishing hooks
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
The public is again being asked to be careful on the Island’s waters to protect sea turtles after the bodies of several young turtles were found with injuries related to human activity.
Photos: Ocean Vet Team Tags Turtles
Monday, August 11, 2014
Dr. Neil Burnie, Choy Aming, and the rest of the Ocean Vet team recently spent a day tagging turtles for tracking, assisting Peter Meylan and Jennifer Gray from the Bermuda Turtle Project.
BAMZ Welcomes Three New Tammar Wallabies
Saturday, August 09, 2014
The Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo [BAMZ] recently acquired three wild Tammar Wallabies, including two males and a female, all in an effort to help New Zealand to control the population of the species in that country.
Shark puts on an impressive show for film crew
Saturday, August 09, 2014
Spectacular footage of Bermuda’s tiger sharks has been captured by local photographer Choy Aming in a dive alongside ‘Ocean vet’ Neil Burnie, and is set to air on network TV.
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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.