More than 50 people spent April 29 at BIOS during the Young Presidents’ Organization’s Family Day, providing an opportunity for the Institute to highlight research and education activities. The event included tours of BIOS’s research vessel Atlantic Explorer (by captain George Gunther pictured above); BIOS faculty member Andrea Bodner’s science laboratories (pictured below); and the MAGIC Room, for a brief talk by Institute director Bill Curry and a look at the glider program.

Lionfish are known for their voracious appetite: individuals can consume up to 90 percent of their body weight every day and they prey on more than 100 fish species, including many that are commercially and ecologically important.

The BIOS-operated vessel Atlantic Explorer docked at the Hamilton Princess Hotel & Beach Club on September 22 for a special evening that included ship tours, mingling on the dock with BIOS researchers, and the opportunity to view a television program that features BIOS’s internationally recognized work on climate change research.

Bottles, bits of plastic, and a discarded lawn chair were among items pulled from Whalebone Bay and Mullet Bay during the annual Ocean Conservancy international coastal clean up on September 16, sponsored locally by Ernst and Young in partnership with Keep Bermuda Beautiful.

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, toured BIOS this month during a visit to Bermuda to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country’s Duke Of Edinburgh International Award.

The Argo Group is a longtime supporter of BIOS and Ocean Academy. As the Title Sponsor of the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing Worlds, the Argo Group has named BIOS as a beneficiary of their support for the world class sailing events being held this week in Bermuda. We are grateful for their support and excited to be working with them to raise awareness of BIOS’s research and education programs.

The Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme (BOPP) believes the ocean is an important component in Bermuda’s recovery from the pandemic and it offers an abundance of opportunities to grow a healthy economy that benefits all. BOPP is working to create a comprehensive plan to sustainably use, manage, and protect the ocean, a plan which will help the economy and ensure healthy fisheries and marine ecosystems for future generations. But we can’t do it without your help.

The global ocean absorbs roughly 25% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. A significant portion of this is driven by the conversion of CO2 into organic compounds (e.g., photosynthesis) by single cell plants in the ocean, a process called the biological carbon pump. Despite the global importance of this process, it remains a daunting task to accurately predict the future strength of the biological carbon pump based upon existing knowledge and ocean ecosystem models. Furthermore, the response of phytoplankton physiology to changing ocean chemistry—such as ocean acidification—and the importance of previously underappreciated mechanisms of the biological carbon pump are additional complicating factors. The goal of this seminar is to present new and developing research on the ocean’s biological carbon pump.

Last February, 11 BIOS scientists participated in the 2012 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah as either the leads or co-authors of 10 talks and 13 posters. A biennial conference held jointly by The Oceanography Society (TOS), the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU), this year’s Ocean Sciences Meeting attracted more than 4,000 scientists, managers and educators from around the globe.

With the start of its 110-year anniversary just a few months away, and the recent installation of Dr. William Curry as the new President and Director, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) has more than one reason to celebrate. Given the coincident timing of these two momentous occasions, BIOS is pulling out all the stops for its 2012 Gala Celebration on Friday, November 9 at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel.