Bermuda BREAM

The Department of Environmental Protection within the Ministry of the Environment and Sports has advised the public that an area of North Shore will be closed to all fishing activities between May 1 st , 2009 and June 30 th , 2009 inclusive. The area being closed is a known “fish aggregation area” and is being closed for the conservation and protection of the Blue-striped grunt ( Haemulon sciurus ), and in accordance with the Fisheries Act 1972. The closed area being roughly rectangular in shape is enclosed by a line running in a north-easterly direction from St. Catherine’s Point, St. George’s to the Southern channel marker #12 (32 degrees 23.6 minutes North, 64 degrees 40.1 minutes West) thence by a line running along the southern boundary of the Southern channel to the Southern channel marker #16 (32 degrees 23.9 minutes North, 64 degrees 40.7 minutes West) thence by a line running in a south-westerly direction to a point 32 degrees 23.4 minutes North, 64 degrees 41.4 min...

The tops of purple sea fans ( Gorgonia ventalina ) were exposed to the air for hours yesterday during flat calm sea conditions and an extremely low spring tide. The beacon at Eastern Blue Cut is in the background. While dramatic, the surprisingly low low tide was a normal spring event. Tide predictions for Sunday show a very low tide was expected [ see link ]. Regardless, the tops of soft corals out on the reef, as well as seagrass meadows across Bermuda (see below), were exposed for hours to bright sunlight and little wind. This will probably result in some mortality and subtle ecological effects that will take some months to restore to normal. The brown substrate in the forground is a subaerially exposed seagrass meadow. This bay pictured above is normally under 3 ft of water, but was exposed during the spring tide at the end of April .

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We have been out working on research projects and doing reef restoration projects. In the photo above - BREAM research assistant Jessie Hallett is transplanting corals at a ship grounding site. We then monitor the corals for survival through time.