Earlier this year, the BIOS Board of Trustees unanimously voted to award Captain John Moore with the Richard Gorham Award for “his long and valued support and extraordinary service to BIOS.”

Ruth Curry, Senior Research Specialist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), is used to the challenges that come with deep-ocean research; after all, she has spent the last three decades measuring circulation pathways in the Atlantic Ocean. But she never expected that, on a calm day in November, she’d require the help of two ships and an underwater robot to literally save her research program, an undertaking she describes as, “the most exciting thing I’ve done in my 32 years of going to sea.”

Some of our achievements in 2012 using ocean science for human good include work to:

Since 1978 the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) has been studying particle fluxes in the deep Sargasso Sea. This year, the OFP celebrates 35 years of continuous measurements, making it the longest running time-series of its kind. “This is a monumental achievement for oceanography and for the US National Science Foundation, which supports the OFP. It is remarkable to look back at all we have learned about the workings of the deep ocean since the OFP began. And as we add ever more sophisticated instruments on the OFP mooring, it is really exciting to look forward to more discoveries about the deep,” says Dr. Maureen Conte, Associate Scientist at BIOS and Adjunct Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystems Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Susan Brittner came to Bermuda in 2007 when her husband, Darrel, transferred for work to the Fairmont Southampton hotel. After almost two years in Bermuda working at a bank, she saw the posting for the marine operations position. “I felt like someone had written that ad specifically with me in mind,” she said.  Brittner, 59, helps to coordinate the schedule for the 170-foot BIOS research vessel Atlantic Explorer, a job that daily requires a multitude of decisions and skill sets. After spending more than 20 years in the Canadian Navy, she said she “really couldn’t ask for a more appropriate place to wind up.”

For the last nine years, students in the Earth Science program at the University of Oxford in England have visited BIOS to gain first-hand knowledge of coastal and deep-water oceanography, as well as the unique geology of Bermuda.

Since 1999 undergraduate and graduate students from around the world have traveled to BIOS each summer to participate in the Microbial Oceanography course. This three-week intensive course is co-taught by Dr. Craig Carlson (University of California, Santa Barbara), Dr. Stephen Giovannoni (Oregon State University), Dr. Craig Nelson (University of Hawaii), Rachel Parsons (BIOS), and Dr. John Heidelberg (University of Southern California), which provides students with a truly multidisciplinary learning experience that taps into the combined expertise of top scientists in their respective fields.  This course has been made possible over the years with funding from BIOS, the National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Agouron Institute.

Amid growing concern regarding the current federal funding climate for ocean science research, the National Science Foundation (NSF) just announced continued support for the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) research program at BIOS. According to Dr. Nicholas Bates, Senior Scientist and Associate Director of Research at BIOS and Principal Investigator of the BATS project, “This represents about $14 million from NSF to BIOS over the next five years: approximately $6 million for research and roughly another $8 million to support science days at sea aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer.” This announcement comes on the heels of a $4 million award from NSF last year to support Hydrostation S, the world’s longest-running hydrographic time-series, for another five years. Together, these two awards represent a significant commitment by NSF to ocean time-series off Bermuda.

From October 18-25, 2013, a group of scientists and technicians were at sea aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer on a very special Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) research cruise marking the program’s 25th year. Like many anniversary celebrations, this one involved cake (more on that in a bit!) but—unlike most celebrations—it also involved a variety of oceanographic science.

In the late 1980s Rod Johnson was working in the UK civil service—a “fantastic job” by his own account—when he attended a meeting concerning the Global Ocean Flux Study (GOFS). During this meeting a topic of discussion was how Bermuda and Hawaii would be pivotal in achieving the GOFS objectives of understanding biogeochemical variability in the oceans and the impact of climate change on these processes.  At the time, Johnson’s girlfriend (Sarah), now his wife, had just moved to Bermuda and, in a move that would impact the course of his career, he decided to contact Dr. Tony Knap, then-Director of BIOS (at the time BBS), to inquire about employment opportunities.