Bermuda BREAM

Not Monday - TUESDAY!!!! FREE: Public Welcome Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo - Classroom Flatts Village, Bermuda Phone: 2932727 Email: tjmurdoch@gov.bm Come hear Jessie Hallett, BREAM researcher, describe how she used the 200 year old Hurd Map of Bermuda to determine how marine and wetland habitats of Bermuda have been changed in the past 2 centuries

BREAM supported research graduate student Matt Ajemian, in part funded by the Eric Clee Environmental Fund at the Bermuda Zoological Society, was in the news today! Link to Bermuda Sun article from Wednesday July 8th Bermuda holds secrets to the elusive Eagle Ray Sarah Lagan Writer/Sub-editor Wednesday, July 08, 2009 Research:  Scientist Matt Ajemian (right) is assisted in the weighing of the captured Eagle Ray which is seen below being netted in to the boat. *Photos by Sarah Lagan The Eagle Ray is a species of fish shrouded in mystery and it is one man's mission to unearth the many secrets of these enigmatic creatures from our own island. PHD student Matthew Ajemian is visiting Bermuda from the University of South Alabama seeking an insight into the ray's movements and behavioural patterns. He is returning to complete the next phase of his research focusing on the ray's interaction with Bermuda's Calico Clam, now scarce here but once seen in their droves. Harrington ...

Jessie Hallett, BREAM Research Assistant, exploring patch reefs in Bermuda's North Lagoon This summer BREAM has several graduate students, funded by BZS, ACP and OTEP, taking part in a range of research projects. Matt Ajemian, from the University of South Alabama and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab , is returning for his third year of BZS-funded PhD research into the population assessment and feeding ecology of spotted eagle rays. His primary advisor is Dr. Sean Powers. Brittany Huntington is returning for her second year of ACP-funding with her PhD project which examines patch reef ecology and interactions between parrotfish and corals. Brittany goes to the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, and is in Dr. Diego Lirman's lab. Katherine Yates joins us for the first time, on an OTEP-funded project to survey the forereef habitats of the Bermuda platform and develop a reliminary spatial management plan for the reefs, as part of her Masters p...

BREAM scientists surveying reefs for disease (c) 2007 T.Murdoch Latest News from the International Union for Conservation of Nature www.iucn.org Manage corals - Minimize climate change Protecting the oceans makes economic sense

Tritonia Report Thad Murdoch Population outbreak of the Tritonia hamnerorum nudibranch, an obligate grazer of Gorgonia ventalina sea fans, across Bermuda’s northern reefs in 2005 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On July 14th 2005 a large population of the nudibranch Tritonia hamnerorum was found to be at infestation levels on a collection of patch reefs on the Devil’s Flat reef complex. This species was never before recorded in Bermuda. • The nudibranch numbered in the many hundreds on some sea fan colonies, and was feeding on the sea fans, which caused damage and death to many of these important sessile animals. • Surveys carried out over the course of the summer determined that the outbreak was patchily located over a ~20 km2 area along the Northern rim and outer patch reefs of the North Lagoon, but not observed nearer to shore, nor along the Western, Southern nor Eas...

Bermuda's Environmental Charter ( link pdf )