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Mapping Bermuda's Coral Reefs

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BREAM, as part of the Bermuda Biodiversity Project at BZS, has developed the most comprehensive maps of Bermuda's coral reefs and other marine habitats that exist. In this post we will describe how we mapped all of the 35,000 patch reefs in the North Lagoon of Bermuda. Our goal was to create a Geographic Information System (GIS) of all the reefs found around Bermuda. A GIS is a computerized map that also contains information about each object mapped. Computerized maps are better than paper maps because once you put all the information you know into the program, you can then ask it to tell you new information which the program can calculate based on what you told it. Some questions you can ask a computerized mapping programme are listed at the bottom of this post. Before we mapped the location of each reef into a GIS (also called a geo-referenced map database) , we needed a set of images of the entire Bermuda reef platform. The BBP, with assistance from the Dept. of Conservation ...
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BREAM?!? Why BREAM?

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One may wonder why we would choose to name ourselves after the Bermuda Bream, considering some of the other, less pleasant names we Bermudians call the fish. Well, there was the pragmatic reason that "Bream" started with a B - so we could start our name with "Bermuda"... However, another draw was that the Bermuda Bream is actually an endemic fish, meaning it is a species found in Bermuda and no where else. Yep - our bream are ours alone, at least according to Caldwell (1965), who first stated this assertion. It' species name is Diplodus bermudensis . That said, there are sister species found across the Atlantic, including one in the Mediterranean called the White Bream ( Diplodus sargus sargus ) which looks remarkably like our guy. I took a photo of the specimen below in the Monaco Aquarium a few weeks ago. There are also bream over in the US and Caribbean, and down to South America, but with the much nicer name of Silver Porgy. Not surprisingly there is some ...
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Reef Watch: Empowering citizens to monitor Bermuda's reefs and fishes

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Bermuda’s coral reefs are vital to the persistence of our economy and wellbeing. Living coral reefs act as a self-healing protective sea wall, blocking storm waves from destroying our fragile limestone shoreline and the coastal infrastructure we built along its edge. Our tourism industry relies on the beauty and charisma of our island; contributed substantially by the many recreational and aesthetic opportunities provided by the coral reefs around us. An economic evaluation of the lagoonal reef, which represents half of the entire reef system, found that $750,000,000 to $1,250,000,000 are contributed to Bermuda’s economy annually by the reefs of Bermuda. It is strongly in our interests to ensure that the coral reef system that protects and sustains our lives is itself protected from the extensive harm that can be caused by bad human behaviour such as overfishing, dredging, shipping traffic and the global environmental threats of climate change and ocean acidification. Creole w...
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