Last month a group of 39 P6 (primary school level 6, or grade 5 in the U.S. school system) students from Harrington Sound Primary School spent three days and two nights at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), where they learned about the local marine environment and potential career paths in ocean science research, technology, and education.

Five years of data collected on reefs and offshore in Bermuda shows that coral reef chemistry – and perhaps the future success of corals – is tied not only to the human carbon emissions causing systematic ocean acidification, but also to seasonal and decadal cycles in the open waters of the Atlantic, and the balance of biochemical processes in the coral reef community.

It is with sadness that BIOS announces the death of oceanographer John A. Knauss, 90, who served the Institute for 10 years as a board member and later as a trustee until 2005. Knauss, whose research and advocacy helped promote marine science, policy, management, and ongoing study of the world’s oceans, was founding Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. There, current BIOS trustee John Farrington recalls Knauss wore many hats with grace and dedication. Knauss was Farrington’s professor of a physical oceanography course in 1968, the same year he was part of a Presidential-Congressional Commission working on the influential report “Our Nation and the Sea.” “He often would arrive directly from the airport, having been at a Commission meeting in Washington, DC, and teach the class,” Farrington said. “He set a high standard as dean and professor that many, including me, have striven to achieve over the years.”  We join the University of Rhode Island in commemorating this loss.

St. George’s, Bermuda –– An anonymous donor has awarded BIOS $6 million to support collaborative research on the distinctive microbial communities of the Sargasso Sea over the next five years. The research will leverage ocean measurements and ongoing research at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site, bringing new collaborations and technologies to study the ocean’s smallest life forms.

Those who have lived in Bermuda or spent time around the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ), participate in the annual Groundswell Lionfish Tournament, or remember the Blue Halo initiative, have likely heard of Chris Flook. Known alternately as “Flookie,” “the godfather of the Bermuda lionfish movement,” or “that guy with the ponytail and sunglasses,” Flook was born and raised in Bermuda and has spent his life working to bring Bermuda’s marine environment to the forefront of public discourse and political awareness.

Elevated ocean temperatures have threatened coral reefs around the world for over a year, but this October marked a tipping point.  NOAA scientists declared the onset of a global coral reef bleaching event impacting coral reefs in every ocean basin, and projected the bleaching will only intensify in 2016. This is the third such global bleaching event in history.

NASA’s Earth Venture Suborbital-2 Program has awarded BIOS scientist Dr. Eric Hochberg a grant to initiate the COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL). The three-year project will use an instrument mounted within the belly of an airplane to survey reefs around the world.  By using airborne data to calculate the amount of coral present on a reef, and to assess the processes underpinning coral reef growth or decline, CORAL provides a new and unprecedented perspective on coral reef ecosystems.

Student Hannah Reich spent the summer at BIOS conducting coral reef fieldwork for her master’s thesis with mentor Gretchen Goodbody-Gringley, assistant scientist at BIOS. Professor Todd Livdahl, who travels to Bermuda every other year with a team of students studying at BIOS, also investigates mosquito species and to observes the island’s efforts to control them.

“We hope it will be fully operational in the next couple of months,” said BIOS scientist Andrew Peters. This month he is installing the power cable, air sampling pumps and lines, filter housings, and meteorological sensors.

Bermudians know that invasive lionfish like to eat their native fish, and that they gobble them in huge numbers. What they don’t know yet is the full range of the lionfish invasion, though increasing evidence shows that lionfish aren’t afraid to go deep for their meals.