Green Antilles

This video was produced as part of a larger initiative to protect the Sargasso Sea from commercial exploitation:

Local and international conservationists, teaming with the Bermuda Government, have joined the Pew initiative in an effort to have the Sargasso Sea protected by law.

Last year the Atlantic Conservation Partnership [ACP] — formerly Friends of the Bermuda Aquarium — commissioned a short film from Look Bermuda aimed at raising awareness about Bermuda’s role in the international campaign to preserve the Sargasso Sea.

Last May the film was screened at “Project Ocean Talks” sponsored by London retailer Selfridges and attended by international conservationists, legislators and government representatives, including Bermuda’s Director of Environmental Protection Dr. Fred Ming, who spoke at the event.

The six-minute short describes the eco-rich area in the middle of the North Atlantic west of Bermuda.

A longer film on Bermuda and the Sargasso Sea is currently being completed for use in the island’s schools.

A related article from Bernews: Group Campaigns For Bermuda Marine Park:

Global Ocean Legacy, a international project being coordinated by the Pew Environment Group and its partners, hopes to establish a worldwide system of large, highly protected marine reserves where fishing and other extractive activities are protected — including one in Bermuda’s waters.

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“Our goal is to work with the Government of Bermuda, non-government organisations and scientists to establish a very large, no-take marine reserve to protect Bermuda’s ocean habitat within its Exclusive Economic Zone [EEZ], which extends from the islands’ coastline out to 200 nautical miles, and is part of the Sargasso Sea,” said the Pew Environmental Group, which launched the marine national park scheme in 2010.

Protection on this scale would:
• Ensure that the Sargasso Sea and its important marine life is safeguarded;
• Provide an important contribution to the internationally agreed target to protect 10 percent of the world’s seas; and
• Demonstrate Bermuda’s role as a world leader in ocean conservation and its place as a world-class destination for tourism and scientific research.

The Pew Environmental Group is placing particular emphasis on Bermuda because globally important seagrass meadows, coral reefs, mangrove swamps, diverse marine life, and an extensive network of underwater caves exist here.

“The warm waters of the Gulf Stream enable Bermuda’s shallow near-shore waters to support the northernmost coral reef system in the world,” said Pew. “Approximately 4,600 of Bermuda’s more than 8,000 species are found in its blue waters.

To read the full original articles, follow the respective links above. A tip of the hat to the Repeating Islands blog for bringing the video and articles to my attention.

Previously on Green Antilles: Sargasso Sea Alliance.

Happy New Year from Green Antilles! I’m going to start the new year off with some encouraging news updates. First, from Bermuda, a story about the recovery of the island’s population of White-tailed Tropicbirds, also known as Bermuda longtails:

Conservation officer Jeremy Madeiros says with continued protection and management, the future now looks bright for the Bermuda Longtail — the island’s traditional herald of spring.

Writing in the Bermuda Audubon Society’s winter newsletter, he says a longterm artificial nest programme has helped to boost numbers of the Bermuda Longtail — or White-tailed Tropicbird as it is correctly known — to between 2,500 and 3,000 breeding pairs.

“The Longtail is one of Bermuda’s best-known and most-loved bird species,” he said. “Long considered to be the first harbinger of spring and foretelling of warmer weather to come, the first sighting of a Longtail is an event that is always recorded in the local newspapers.

“It was also long considered to be Bermuda‟s unofficial National Bird, although that honour was officially given to the endemic and critically endangered Cahow, or Bermuda Petrel Pterodroma cahow in 2003.”

The Tropicbird is a beautiful, black and white seabird with a wingspan of just over three feet which can be found in subtropical seas in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.

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“The North Atlantic contains a distinct sub-species, Phaethon lepturus catsbyi, which only nests in Bermuda, the Caribbean and islands off the northern coast of South America,” he said. “The Bermuda population of about 2500-3000 nesting pairs is very important as it represents about half of the entire population of this subspecies.

“This means that Bermuda’s tropicbirds are not only important to the local environment, but are of international significance.”

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As of 2011, a total of 96 artificial nests have been installed at seven of survey locations — Long Rock, Inner Pear Rock, Green Island, Nonsuch Island, Horn Rock, Southampton Island, and Shelly Bay.

Out of these 96 nests, a total of 69 had nesting activity recorded during the 2011 nesting season, of which 55 produced successfully fledging chicks.

“This represents 79.7 percent breeding success with the artificial nests,” he said. “In comparison, in 2011 there were a total of 143 natural nests with nesting activity, of which 99 produced successfully fledged chicks, representing 69.2 percent breeding success.

“The artificial nest sites therefore experienced 10.5 percent higher breeding success than the natural sites, a significant figure that confirms previous results from 2006 – 2008.

Mr. Madeiros said these results illustrate that the programme of artificial nest installation has already been a success in maintaining and increasing the numbers of breeding pairs and fledged chicks and that it should be continued and, where appropriate, expanded.

“This technique also has potential application in other locations where White-tailed Tropicbirds nest, especially in the Caribbean where this species has been confirmed as declining in numbers at many known nesting locations,” he said.

Based on these results, Mr. Madeiros said the Longtail is enjoying a high breeding success on Bermuda, both at managed and unmanaged locations.

Read more in the full article from BerNews.

Previously on Green Antilles: A bright future for Bermuda’s cahow, a bird once believed to be extinct and Bermuda strengthens protection for endangered species.

[Photo: kansasphoto]

BerNews spotlights the work of the Bermuda Turtle Project:

Baby loggerheads hatched by the Bermuda Turtle Project — seen being released and scrambling into the sea in this video – underscore the initiative’s ongoing efforts to repopulate the island’s waters.

Five of the world’s seven sea turtle species are known to occur in Bermuda waters. And nearly all sea turtles found in Bermuda waters are immature.

Bermuda appears to be a location where young sea turtles grow up separate from adult animals.

The shallow reefs and seagrass meadows of the Bermuda Platform provide foraging grounds for immature hawksbill and green turtles, among the most common species found near the island.

And hatchling loggerheads spend their first months well camouflaged in floating rafts of Sargassum weed off Bermuda. During the winter months, juvenile loggerheads are frequently found stranded on Bermuda shores after heavy storms.

Bermuda’s juvenile green turtles have been the focus of a specific tagging study initiated in 1968 by Dr. H.C. Frick, a trustee of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation.

One of the first scientific investigations of this species in their developmental habitat, the Bermuda Turtle Project [BTP] continues today as a joint effort between the Bermuda Zoological Society, the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo [BAMZ] and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation.

The project’s mission is to further the understanding of the biology of highly migratory, endangered marine turtles in order to promote their conservation in both Bermuda and worldwide.

Since the project’s inception more than 40 years ago, more than 2500 juvenile greens have been captured in a 2000 foot long net designed specifically to trap them.

They are tagged and studied on board a research vessel before being released at the capture site.

This project is also one of the longest-running projects of its kind in the world.

Find out more in the original BerNews article and at the [Photo: Antoaneta]

The Bermuda Department of Energy has launched a competition to encourage consumers to conserve energy:

The Department of Energy this week launched what will be a ten-month competition to see who can reduce their electricity use the most.

Along with lower power bills, the winning household will take home a $600 travel voucher.

The Department announced yesterday that it was searching for volunteers to take part in the competition.

A Government spokeswoman explained: “Prior to the start of the competition, the Department of Energy will supply and install an electronic electricity meter into participant’s homes that will provide real-time information about their electricity consumption on their laptop or PC.

“Every month contestants will check in with Department of Energy staff to share their electricity bills, which will then be compared with participant’s historical data to assess progress.”

The staff will also offer advice and guidance to help participants along, measuring their progress compared with other competitors.

Minister of Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy Marc Bean said he hoped the competition would help demonstrate that making a few small changes, homeowners can save hundreds of dollars in power bills.

“We believe that without doing very much that’s different to their current behaviours, the average resident can save 15 percent of their bills by just being aware of obvious energy waste,” Mr Bean said.

Read more in the full article from the Bermuda Royal Gazette.

[Photo: Tiago Daniel]

In Bermuda, legislation to protect the island’s endangered species has been strengthened:

Increased fines of up to $25,000 have been brought in to better protect Bermuda’s endangered species.

The move comes as the Protected Species Amendment Act was passed by the House of Assembly although the Opposition complained the new rules could be circumvented by Government without public consultation.

While all MPs agreed on the need to protect endangered species, the One Bermuda Alliance tried, and failed, to introduce an amendment to make the new law more “transparent”.

The new legislation means that instead of just one category, there are now three different categories of plants and animals that need special help to survive.

It amends an eight-year-old law which already protects Bermuda’s most threatened plants and animals, including the national bird the Cahow, the Bermuda Skink and the Spotted Eagle Ray.

Parks and Conservation Services Minister Michael Weeks said: “The amendment to the principle act allows Bermuda to better protect its endangered plants and animals while increasing the chances of successful recovery by including the public in the process.”

He noted that many rare species are under threat from habitat loss, competition from invasive species, climate change and pollution. He said the definition of what constitutes an offence under the current act is “very prohibitive” as “it restricts having in one’s possession a protected species, parts of one, their transportation and actions that would constitute maintenance”.

This, he said, “effectively stops positive interaction with certain species, for example endangered plants which would greatly benefit from the assistance of the wider public in their recovery.”

For more information read the full article from the Bermuda Royal Gazette.

Both the original 2003 Protected Species Act and the accompanying 2007 Protected Species Order are available for download from Bermuda Laws Online.

[Photo: ecotist]

More about lionfish and ciguatera toxin. Experts in Bermuda are making the assurance that lionfish caught in Bermuda are safe to eat, as the prevalance of ciguatera there is extremely low:

Lionfish that have invaded Bermuda’s offshore waters are perfectly edible, local experts have claimed.

A recent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study in the Caribbean has revealed a naturally occurring toxin in the flesh of the species that can lead to ciguatera poisoning.

Ciguatera poisoning is caused by digesting fish that live near reefs and have accumulated the toxin in their flesh through eating smaller fish that graze on poisonous algae.

Lionfish are known to prey predominately on juvenile fish. Of the 74 specimens tested in the recent study, 26 percent were found to have ciguatoxins at levels exceeding FDA guidance.

People who have digested infected fish usually suffer from nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea and, in some cases, paralysis or death. Conservationists in St Maarten have already advised residents there not to consume lionfish.

The move has dealt a heavy blow to that island’s attempts to contain the spread of the species through encouraging anglers to specifically target the candy-striped predator.

However, local senior marine resources officer Tammy Trott has assured seafood lovers that lionfish in Bermuda’s waters are not harmful.

“Bermuda has low levels of the organism that is the root cause of ciguatera poisoning,” said Dr Trott. “And as far as we are aware there have been very few local incidences of ciguatoxic fish, even in species that are known for this in other places. Therefore, we do not anticipate ciguatera being a problem in Bermuda.”

Veteran diver Graham Maddocks said the rare cases of ciguatera poisoning that have been reported in Bermuda can be counted on one hand.

“As far as I understand I think there’s only been two cases of people getting ciguatera in Bermuda,” he said. “And it is most likely it was from people eating imported fish.”

Mr Maddocks added that the conditions in regions where outbreaks of ciguatera poisoning are occasionally reported simply do not exist in Bermuda.

“We don’t have to worry about ciguatera because our water temperatures are too cool which is really the main reason and our wind direction comes from all points of the compass,” he said. “There is no concern with ciguatera here in Bermuda.”

To date the FDA have had no official reports of illness associated with the consumption of lionfish fillets.

Read the full article from the Bermuda Royal Gazette.

Previously on Green Antilles: More data emerges about ciguatera toxin in lionfish, Lionfish invasion in Bermuda is “like some sort of horror movie”, and Lionfish and ciguatera risk.

[Photo: carfull53]

A group of scientists, sponsored by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), were recently in Bermuda to do research on sea-level changes:

A team of scientists believes that Bermuda’s mangroves and coral reefs hide information about the history of the Atlantic’s ever-changing sea levels.

A NASA-funded team of researchers, including Bermudian Lisa Rodrigues, an assistant professor at Villanova University, has been collecting samples from the Island for the past two weeks.

Their aim is to complete a study into how sea levels have changed over the last 2,000 years.

Andrew Kemp, of Yale University, said: “The plan is to try to do it in two ways, by both looking at sediment in the mangroves and by looking at the growth and erosion of coral.

“The idea is that mangroves accumulate sediment to keep themselves at a particular sea level. If the ocean goes up, they need to keep in pace with it.”

Similarly, he said the Island’s reefs can provide a map of the ocean’s history as the coral species that formed the reefs are affected by the changing environment.

“There are only a few places in the world coral and mangroves in such close proximity can both be used to reliably reconstruct sea levels,” Dr Kemp said. “Bermuda is also unusual in that it is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, while most of the data we have comes from continental coasts.”

Ryan Moyer, from the US Geological Survey, said: “The coral has been around for at least 10,000 years, at least the shallow reef.

“We can do dating further back, but in this case we are trying to compare it to the mangroves’ results, so anything we get beyond 2,000 years is a bonus.”

He said that while a great deal of research has been done on reefs in the Pacific, there has been relatively little work on recent sea level changes from Atlantic reefs.

Get more information in the full article from the Bermuda Royal Gazette.

[Photo: via royalgazette.com]

Earlier this year a representative of the Bermuda Aquarium expressed his view that the lionfish invasion in Bermuda was not a serious threat. Now an experienced scuba diver is voicing a different opinion, that the lionfish problem in Bermuda is more severe than people think:

The threat of lionfish decimating local fish stocks is far worse than many Bermudians realise.

Already the species has had an adverse effect on juvenile fish stocks in the Caribbean. And, unless measures to prevent the proliferation of lionfish in local waters are stepped up, expert deep sea diver Graham Maddocks fears the same could happen in Bermuda.

“The lionfish is here and the thing that they are doing is wiping out our juveniles that the average person doesn’t notice. You don’t notice that the juveniles are not there unless you are a scuba diver,” he said. “As a fisherman you don’t notice that the juveniles are not there because you are catching your big fish. But once those big fish are gone then there’s nothing to take their place.”

With most of the local population focused on current world events such as the ailing economy, Mr Maddocks says not many people are aware of the threat lurking below the water surface.

“Some people are saying they don’t see them in the shallows, and that’s a good thing,” he added. “This means we still have a chance because the moment you start seeing them up and around the rocks and docks it’s too late. It means they have built their forces from 200ft and they are filling the water all the way up to the shallows and it’s a problem that’s going to get out of control very quickly.

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According to Mr Maddocks, lionfish have entrenched themselves at depths of nearly 200ft around the Island and are gradually advancing inshore. The species was first spotted in local waters in 2000 and based on their ability to reproduce quickly Mr Maddocks isn’t surprised to see their numbers have swelled in the past decade.

“On our recreational dives we are seeing them almost every single dive that we go on and it’s almost like some sort of horror movie because they are gathering their forces at 200ft and then coming up into the shallows to spawn,” he said.

Read more in the full article from the Bermuda Royal Gazette.

Previously on Green Antilles: In Bermuda, the lionfish invasion is deemed to be under control.

[Photo: Zach Frailey]

The Bermuda Folk & Phyto Medicine Society will be presenting a lecture on traditional medicine and folk remedies:

The use of traditional medicines and folk remedies in Bermuda dates back four centuries to the time the earliest settlers came ashore here and local herbs and plants are still being incorporated into homeopathic medicines.

The Bermuda Folk & Phyto Medicine Society is presenting an introduction to Bermudian Folk Remedies by Dr. Kuni Frith-Black on Tuesday [Nov.8] at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo.

Dr. Frith-Black’s talk will take place in BAMZ’s classroom from 7:00pm – 8:30 pm. Admission is $10 for BAMZ members, $15 for non-members. For tickets please e-mail: bermudafolkmedicine@live.com or call 504-5400

A herbal tea tasting will be included in the presentation.

Some traditional Bermuda folk remedies include:

• Lemongrass has been boiled and taken by Bermudians as a tea to reduce fevers for years (Historic and Edible Herbs of Bermuda).
• If you drink the tea of boiled Surinam cherry leaves, it cools your blood in the hot summer months.
• Scurvy grass grows abundantly in Bermuda and was widely used to treat scurvy disease when boiled and applied to areas affected.
• Fennel Herb tea was an old folk remedy used to regulate difficult and irregular cycles.
• Match me if you can leaves have been used by Bermudians for a range of different ailments such as reducing fevers when applied to the base of the feet.
• Father John is traditionally used to reduce fevers and in a tonic to build up the body Historic and Edible a).
• Allspice is traditionally used to boost the immune system. The leaves and berries are antioxidant and an infusion of dried leaves is used to treat a fever.
• Prickly Pear is traditionally used in small quantities as raw pulp to stop diarrhea.

Source: Bernews via Repeating Islands.

[Photo: Chris de Rham]

Scientists at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences have received a multi-million dollar grant to study how sea urchins fight aging and cancer:

The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) has been given a grant of $3 million to help fund research into cancer and ageing.

The funds will go towards the International Centre for Ocean and Human Health at BIOS.

The centre is researching sea urchins, which can live for more than 200 years without showing signs of ageing.

The spiny sea creatures have also shown an extremely high resistance to cancer-causing agents.

The intention of the study is to learn how the creatures resist such DNA damaging agents, and then apply this knowledge to human cells in an effort to reduce the effects of cancer and ageing-related diseases.

The animals have been at the heart of ageing research for more than a century, and have been key to the discovery of proteins used in the control of cell division, helping scientists to understand the progression of cancer.

BIOS director Tony Knap said: “Sea urchins don’t get cancer, and they don’t seem to age the way humans do.

“We are looking at them as a model and comparing them to ourselves, and from that we hope to learn more about cancer and ageing.”

Dr Knap said the anonymous grant is the largest single donation ever received by the institute.

“We are very happy about it,” he said. “It is a restricted grant, so it will go entirely to this research. We can’t use it to pay our light bills or anything like that.”

The research has also received funding from the US National Institutes for Health, the first such grant that institute has given BIOS.

Source.

[Photo: Bob Gaffney]