Bermuda BREAM

It seems that May is the month for deep reef video surveys. Apparently scientists are also surveying coral reefs in the mesophotic zone in Samoa [ link ] Here in Bermy, we have been weathered out for the past week, but plan to resume surveys next week of 30m reefs. We have 7 sites remaining to be surveyed as of today.

The BREAM programme relies 100% on funding and donations. If you would like to support BREAM please go to the Atlantic Conservation Partnership website [ link ] and specify that you would like your donation to go to BREAM . Also - We rely on volunteers and intern support. If you are interested in volunteering as a diver, boater, or in other ways, please contact us at: Tel: (441) 293-4464 x144 email: tjmurdoch (at) gov.bm

In 3 1/2 "boat" days the BREAM team and volunteers have surveyed 18 sites located at 5-km intervals around the Bermuda reef platform (see the yellow start and end points in map above). We have been using the Bermuda Zoological Society RV Endurance to do the research. Sites are centered at 90ft depth, and occasionally extend up to 75ft and down to a maximum depth of 130ft. At each site we are filming a 500m long transect using HD1080 high def video for analysis of coral community structure and fish population composition. We hope to complete 25 sites in total at the 90ft depth range. The project is funded by the Overseas Territories Environmental Programme , the Bermuda Zoological Society , the Atlantic Conservation Partnership and the Bermuda Government Department of Conservation Services , and supported by the Department of Environmental Protection. You can follow the BREAM programme on Facebook at the following link ( Facebook )

Here is the first HD video image from the BREAM drop-camera. This was filmed at 110 ft off South Shore Bermuda in HD1080, from a video camera array hanging 110ft off the boat. The array was about 3ft above the reef. The bright green dots are 2 laser lights set at 10cm. The image is almost exactly 1:1. more soon. we are going through the first videos from the down-looking and forward-looking cameras now.

The BREAM video camera array. Circular holes in the front allow internal video cameras to film fishes. The BREAM team has been busy for the past couple of months designing and building a video camera array, or "drop-camera", to survey coral reefs that are too deep to survey by divers. A view of the underside of the video array, showing the circular holes for the video cameras to film through, and the rectangular holes forlights. BREAM technician Robert Fisher is standing proudly in the background. The camera array has 2 HD1080 video cameras (with associated pairs of 1500W lights and a pair of green lasers to provide scale in the resultant video) facing downward to film the corals, and an additional pair of HD cameras without lights to film fish. The array also has a lower resolution camera that is wired to the surface by a cable that provides live video that we can see while the array is deployed. This video allows us to keep the array at the correct depth in the water column...

Porgy (12" length) Hogfish (18" length) Noticed a small fish "die-off" or mortality event on Sunday at Salt Kettle in Hamilton Harbour. Have heard others were seen at Baileys Bay and Dockyard. Will post the contact should you see several dead fish shortly.

A large moon jelly ( Aurelia aurita ) [(c) 2006 T. Murdoch] Research at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, my alma mater, indicates that jellyfish produce more young jellyfish during colder winters, and that this causes larger blooms of adult jellyfish in the summer. Bermuda had a particularly cold winter ( NOAA water temperature graph ), and perhaps this means Bermuda will have a particularly dense accumulation of moon jellies this summer. You can read the article here - link