It is often said that good things come in groups of three, and that might be the case for a trio of research projects aimed at reducing a recent, but growing, threat to Bermuda’s marine biodiversity: the invasive lionfish.

Leo Blanco-Bercial grew up fishing for mackerel and tuna off the coast of his native Spain, but for his career has gravitated to studies of the tiniest of marine organisms: plankton. Blanco-Bercial, 36, began work at BIOS in January with the intention of continuing his plankton studies, specifically their genetics. He also plans to continue educating his Europe-based family, he said. “During visits home, I like explaining how plankton nourish the fish that we love catching and eating.”

Comb jellies, or ctenophores, are some of the most abundant organisms in the open ocean, and their voracious hunting satisfies their big appetites. But away from their deeper-water home, in the care of humans, they are fickle and finicky. When captured in jars, their fragile tentacles and gelatinous bodies are often damaged. In laboratory settings, they are intolerant of shifts in salinity and temperature, and sometimes refuse to feed.

Late last month, a four-day research cruise on the Sargasso Sea gave two local educators and a senior school student the opportunity to gain unique insight into what it means to live and breathe science aboard a working research vessel. The cruise was part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) investigating the daily migrations of small marine zooplankton called copepods.

In 2000, BIOS realized its vision of serving as a year-round educational institute with the development of spring and fall semester programs designed for undergraduate students interested in ocean and atmospheric sciences. The initial fall semester program consisted of three courses—coral reef ecology, marine invertebrate zoology, and marine biology and oceanographic research—and was created in partnership with the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Roger Williams University (RWU), both located in Rhode Island on the east coast of the United States.

The rare and ancient microorganisms that live in Bermuda’s submerged caves intrigue BIOS marine ecologist Leocadio Blanco-Bercial, but venturing into these dark, remote spaces to document and retrieve samples is often logistically difficult, not to mention dangerous. When a colleague mentioned a grant for a portable underwater robot that Blanco-Bercial could instead steer into narrow crevices and twisting tunnels to gather microbe samples and take photos, he set to work on an application.

Researchers and students representing BIOS gathered in San Diego, California, in mid-February to participate in the biennial Ocean Sciences meeting. The flagship conference, held jointly by the Oceanography Society, the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, and the American Geophysical Union, attracted nearly 5,000 scientists, managers, and educators from around the globe.