The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) maintains a Red List of Species that are threatened with extinction. Bermudian species on the Red List include the Bermuda Skink, Bermuda Cedar, Bermuda Palmetto and Cahow. In honour of the International Year of Biodiversity, the IUCN is featuring a listed species each day throughout 2010. Keep and eye on this space and you may see one of our Bermuda species.
Environmental Youth Conference 2010
In honour of the International Year of Biodiversity the theme of this year’s Environmental Youth Conference was “The Power of One: Preserving Our Biodiversity”. The conference was organised by the Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS), sponsored by the Ernest E. Stemple Foundation, and supported by the Ministry of the Environment and the Department of Conservation Services.
The conference was held at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ) on April 14th and 15th with the closing ceremony at the Fairmont Southampton on the evening of April 16th. Fifty six students aged 10 – 16 (P6 to S4) attended from schools across the island and home schools.
Fieldtrip to Walsingham
Students undertook two field trips; one with the theme ‘how we impact our environment’ and the second with the theme ‘what are we doing to help?’ After each trip the students presented the key points they had learned on the trip to students in other groups who had gone on different fieldtrips. Students also participated in a workshop of their choice and visited 5 interactive learning stations around the BAMZ facility taught by local experts.
Congratulations to the BZS Education team, lecturers, trip leaders and all of the students for making the conference enjoyable and informative. The next Environmental Youth Conference will be held in April 2012.
Group presentation
Related BAP activities:
- C 2.9: Continue to hold a biennial Environmental Youth Conference.
- E 7.3: Document and celebrate successful youth involvement in biodiversity conservation projects through the media, public events and the Environmental Youth Conference.
Earth Day 2010
April 22nd 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of the celebration of the first Earth Day in the US in 1970. Since that time Earth Day has become a global day for discussion of pressing environmental issues, education on these issues, and positive action for the environment.
In Bermuda this year, Earth Day was marked by the second annual BASEC Earth Day celebration at Victoria Park. This celebration was largely organised and driven by young people through the Bermuda Association of Eco-Clubs (BASEC). The event offered an afternoon of entertainment by many local musicians, student groups and poets, as well as children’s activities including making recycled artwork, and a giant climate change snakes and ladders game. There were also 25 exhibitors (including many BAP partners) displaying everything from solar panels and square foot gardens to environmentally themed children’s books, bluebird boxes and electric scooters.
The Department of Conservation Services was please to be able to take part in this event to showcase the work undertaken by the department to protect and enhance Bermuda’s biodiversity and to promote awareness of biodiversity in this, the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB 2010).
Congratulations to BASEC and the Earth Day Organising Committee on an educational and entertaining event.
DCS table at Earth Day
Related BAP actions & activities:
- Action E.8: Promote community participation in biodiversity conservation through local and international action days for the environment.
- Action D.9: Use public events to raise public awareness of biodiversity conservation and to encourage direct involvement.
- Activity D 9.2: Build on existing street festivals (including Harbour Nights and Heritage Day Parade), sporting events and exhibitions (including The Annual Exhibition and the Eden Project) to incorporate biodiversity messages – including biodiversity-themed costumes, floats and vendors.
Unidentified Harbour Wreck, Royal Navy Dockyard: Report of Fieldwork, December 2007
In mid-2007, Dr. Philippe Max Rouja, Custodian of Historic Wrecks, inspected the remains of anPhoto: J.Hoyt, Dec 15th 2007 unidentified vessel located off of the Royal Navy Dockyard, Ireland Island, Bermuda (see Figures 1 and 2). The iron-hulled site, of approximate dimensions 65 by 20 feet (19.81 by 6.1m) sits in approximately 45 feet (13.72m) of water. The site is currently under threat from the development of extended piers associated with cruise ships entering the Dockyard, as well as potential damage from prop wash.
On August 10, 2007, while guests of the Bermuda Maritime Museum (BMM), Dr. Nathan Richards and Dr. Bradley Rodgers of the Program in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University (ECU) carried out a reconnaissance dive on the site. The results of the survey culminated in a small not-to-scale site sketch, confirming all of the information outlined by Dr. Rouja. The wreck is very much intact, although it is missing decking, engines and machinery.
In September, 2007, the Bermuda Maritime Museum received funding to carry out site recording of the vessel with the intention to provide recommendations as to the vessel's future. The project was carried out with the financial assistance and with further in-kind contributions from East Carolina University, the Bermuda Maritime Museum, agencies of the Government of Bermuda, and local Bermuda divers.
Click here to read the full fieldwork report submitted to the Government of Bermuda and the Bermuda Maritime Museum, by Nathan Richards and Joseph Hoyt, from East Carolina University.
Also, watch video footage by Dr. Philippe Rouja, Custodian of Historic Wrecks, taken before the full survey.
19th C Tug at Dockyard Outside North Arm Bermuda from Dr Philippe Max Rouja on Vimeo.
This is the tug we discovered while surveying for the new cruise-ship dock "Heritage Wharf" now completed.
This is an early film made soon after discovery and before full survey.
Subsequent to this we had to remove the steering quadrant that stuck up above the wreck and we also removed and relocated a number of corals to the cruise-ship grounding site.
Overseas Territories Nature Conservation Funding Sources Database
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) in the UK has recently concluded a project to investigate sources of financial and academic assistance available to the UK Overseas Territories for nature conservation projects. A database of these resources and more information about funding sources is available on the JNCC website. Hopefully these resources will be of use to BSAP partners in carrying out biodiversity project in Bermuda.