Dr. Jamie Bacon and Dr. Alex Amat holding the KBB Environmental Partner Award

On Wednesday, 22nd February the Bermuda Zoological Society's Education department was awarded the KBB Environmental Partner Award for the 2016 Environmental Youth Conference and the Aqua Explorers Camps at the KBB Awards Presentation and AGM.  Dr. Jamie Bacon, Education Officer at BZS, and Dr. Alex Amat, Educator & Youth Activities Coordinator at BZS, accepted the award on behalf of the Education department.

Last year, the theme of the Environmental Youth Conference was "Managing the Environmental Impact of America's Cup-35". The conference saw sixty M3-S4 student delegates and their teachers from the island's public and private schools attend the two-day event. Strategic partnerships within the America's Cup community, in particular 11th Hour Racing, a programme of The Schmidt Family Foundation, as well as ACEA and ACBDA, used the conference platform to promote environmental sustainability throughout AC-35 racing by spreading awareness to Bermuda's students and providing solutions to keep our fragile marine environment healthy. The students learned about the enormity of hosting an event like the America's Cup, the challenges that must be addressed in order to prevent it from having a detrimental effect on Bermuda's fragile environment, and the solutions that are being proposed. They were able to participate in a variety of workshops, including conducting ecological monitoring of the Great Sound from the BZS floating classroom Endurance, toured relevant sailing and boat building exhibits at the National Museum, toured Team Oracle's base and participated in STEAM hands-on activities. They visited the reverse osmosis and sewage treatment plants in Dockyard to understand how these facilities are able to handle the influx of thousands of visitors, including up to 100 mega yachts, and concluded the conference by designing models of environmentally sustainable Americas Cup Event Villages. 

The BZS Explorers camp ran for 4 weeks last summer, and on average had 14 kids in each week. The camp's focus was on a "World Without Fish". Dr. Alex Amat discussed the effects of over-fishing, pollution and plastics with the campers and they explored the problem the world would face without heathly ocean habitats. The campers spent time cleaning up Trunk Island, Harrington Sound and Coney Island, and then took the trash they collected and turned it into art.