Recent News
One thousand turn up to help celebrate environmental landmarksThursday, June 09, 2022
About 1,000 people turned out to the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo on Saturday to celebrate World Oceans Day and World Environment Day.
The facility, along with the Bermuda Zoological Society, hosted a free Family Open Day, where they demonstrated their “commitment to ocean conservation”.
David Wingate portrait donated to National Gallery
Thursday, May 12, 2022
A leading conservationist was presented with a portrait of himself in honour of his work.
Ornithologist shows David Wingate helping a fledging Cahow from its nest with two of the seabirds in flight behind him.
A dedication event was held at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo on Saturday.
SailGP preparations underway as Cross Island comes to life
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Sailing fever is now in full swing at the West End ahead of the opening races of SailGP this weekend.
Behind the scenes at Cross Island, headquarters of the Bermuda Grand Prix, the sailing teams and their technical support are immersed in preparations.
BZS Welcomes Youth Climate Summit Participants to Trunk Island
Thursday, May 05, 2022
On Saturday, 30th April, the Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS) invited 6 participants from the Youth Climate Summit, as well as the Youth Climate Initiative Consulting Director - Dr. Rosemarie McMahon, for a morning of planting native trees on Trunk Island, the BZS Living Classroom. Under the careful guidance of Trevor Rawson, the BZS Trunk Island Project Coordinator, the participants were able to plant 30 native and endemic trees - teaching them the importance of placing trees and shrubs in a newly graded and exposed coastal environment.
Warwick Playground Transformed by the BZS Micro Forest Project
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
If you drove along South Shore in Warwick last Saturday morning you may have seen a large group of people planting at Warwick Playground. The Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS) was joined by their Junior Volunteers, members of the BZS Science Club, individuals from the Government of Bermuda’s Department of Parks, employees from the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo and corporate volunteers from RenaissanceRe and Aspen Re to plant the second plot for the BZS Micro Forest Project.
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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 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.
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.