Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute

Just when you think it's a Tuesday and you are finally going to get some rest and do the housework, something to do will pop up somewhere on the island.  Seeing South Pacific at City Hall was an idea, but it was sold out.  However before I could even made it past morning coffee I discovered that there was a lecture in town last night at BUEI -- the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. 


BUEI is a gem on this rock.  The building itself if designed as an education center, and while the target audience in most of the displays a younger audience, as is the case with most museums, it is still well worth the entrance fee for any visitors to Bermuda.  Younger guests will enjoy the "submarine dive" from the top floor to the bottom floor, and those of us who are a little older than that can appreciate that it's a nice change from the typical elevator ride.  It offers a little bit of Disneyland in Bermuda.  There is also the virtual shark cage, and many informative displays that show how Bermuda came to be, and what the island looks like below the surface.  It explains a few lesser talked about mysteries, such as why Bermuda has pink sand (will save that explanation for a later blog), and displays some timeless treasures like articles recovered from shipwrecks that are hundreds of years old. There is a life's worth of work and passion for on display in the Jack Lightbourne room.  Jack is a Bermudian who began collecting shells while diving in the 1940's and has donated his collection of over 1200 shells to the Institute.  It is a tough skinned soul that can walk through that room and not find one shell that delights in either beauty or oddity.  Going back to the shipwreck collection, one will also stumble across some movie posters from the 1977 movie, The Deep, featuring a young Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bissett.  According to island legend and much to the audience's delight (and bolstering the personal finances of the director), the young English actress was unaware of the effect of being filmed diving in nothing but a white T-shirt, and so began a fantasy of pre-pubescent males everywhere.  As well as pubescent and post pubescent males.  Wikipedia cites Italy as being ahead of the game and capitalizing on this effect as early as the 40's with the first wet T-shsirt contest, but in the early 70's it was not mainstream in the US, hence even Wikipedia credits Miss Bisset with the pop culture mania that followed.  Not surprisingly, one can still find a few old dogs on the island who absolutely swear they were romantically involved with Miss Bisset.  I have been told that parts of the movie were centered around Marley Beach, and some of the original furniture used by the cast and crew is still kicking around.  Marley Beach does have a few select and exquisite cottages for rent should anyone want to explore Bermuda with their own private beach.  Many a picture on my facebook page is taken from the owner's patio, thanks Steve for sharing the view.  Going back to BUEI, one of the reasons The Deep is on display is certainly due to Bermuda being the location of the movie, but as well Nick Nolte's character is said to be based on Bermuda's own Teddy Tucker, a legend in his own rite who discovered over 100 shipwrecks in Bermuda's waters and amassed a fortune in treasure.  One of the most remarkable pieces he collected is known as Tucker's Cross.  The Tucker's Cross was discovered in 1955, collected from the remains of the San Pedro which wrecked in the offshore reefs in 1594.  Made of 22 karat gold and 7 emeralds the "size of a musket ball" totalling 42 karats of emeralds, the cross was fascinatingly intricate in its design to come apart like a puzzle and hold something inside.  It was assessed at over $100,000 in the 1950's by the Smithsonian Institute and deemed to be the most valuable single treasure taken from the seas at that time.  Teddy Tucker sold the treasure to the Bermuda government in 1959 so that it would remain forever on the island.  However, it was discovered to have been stolen and replaced with a replica at inspection before Queen Elizabeth II's visit in 1975.  I wonder when it will be rediscovered again....and where. 



photo copied from Teddy Tucker's websitte

Clearly, I have learned a fair bit for my $12 admission fees to BUIE over the years, and Tuesday was set to be another learning experience.  BUEI hosts a lot of interesting events, from film series, local science productions, and seems to catch a lot of travelling authors, scientists, photographers, and the like and line them up for lectures.  The lectures tend to be almost impromptu and underadvertised yet totally sold out, so it was much to my delight today to find that a BBC camerman from The Frozen Planet would be speaking there.  The fee was $25, and while no one was available to come along, I was happy enough to go alone.  Of course it's Bermuda and one doesn't usually make it through the supermarket or hallway at work or anywhere without 2 or 3 random catch up conversations.  The lecture was no  exception and soon I ran into a lovely lady named Heather who I met last year at a fashion show -- she was also going on her own, was decked out in a fabulous dress that met my fashionista approval, and she introduced me to Simon from Florida who sells all the orthopedic hips to our hospital, and so on and so on. Theexception, ran re is always someone to talk to in Bermuda. Leaving the wine bar and going back to our guest speaker, Doug Anderson, we were treated to a recap of his experiences working in the Antarctic with

BBC to capture behavioral patterns of killer whales.  I got a little less than delighted when the whales started eating the seals, and even he admitted it was pretty hard to have to bear witness to.  It was pretty neat though to learn of how they set out to see if a behavior of cooperative hunting of seals, witnessed only 6 times in recorded history, was common, or even true.  Astoundingly they captured the event above water, on underwater camera, and with an aerial view from the lookout over 18 times.  They determined that male killer whales live with their mother's their whole lives, which prompted the lady beside me to le an over and say "are these whales Bermudian?". To the chuckles of the females in the audience, they were also forced to admit that it didn't appear that men did much of anything really and the females were the core of the social structure, in clear command, and the brains of the operation. The boys are muscle for interspecies challenges or moving heavier ice floes. Through an accident in the temporary tags they placed on the whales staying attached for longer than anticipated, they also discovered that they swim from Antarctica to about San Paulo Brazil and then swim right back about 3 days later, reconfirming that we have absolutely no idea why anything does what it does in the ocean. Interestingly, it also turns out that the whales only like to eat a particular species of seal. And that at least one humpback whale take great interest in the killer whales pack hunting...not to get a share of the action, but to mess with the killer whales and save the seal. They captured a photo of the humpback whale catching the dislodged seal on its belly and keeping it safe from the pack of killer whales. Was it an act or empathy? Or just a strong desire to ruin the day of some killer whales? I like to think empathy. That made my day. So, the next time you watch Frozen Planet, watch for this footage.

 



Coming up from shell room to main floor



 



Inside of BUEI



 

Coming next from this team is a documentary called "The Hunt."  Doug is currently here working in the Sargasso Sea.  The Sargasso Sea, just off of Bermuda, is the world's only sea that is not bordered by land.  The borders of the sea are in fact the different ocean currents that wall this area off...so it it a sea bordered by oceans really.  I wanted to post a link showing a map and had to laugh when this message came up.  "Due to the Federal government shutdown, NOAA.gov and most associated web sites are unavailable."  They were smart enough to disable the ability to copy and paste their message from the website so that I could properly mock it (you will have to use your imagination a little bit).  But really?  Isn't it a bit much to disable static text on the government webites?  Serves me right for looking for education on a US Government website.  So, back to Wikipedia, which never closes its doors.

 

The Sargassum, another term for the Sargasso Sea, was first discovered back in 1492 by Columbus who was not really all that interested in the mat of floating seaweed.  In fact, it rather freaked them out.  But nowadays it is famous for it's crystal clear blue waters, the biological diversity within its unique and walled off ocean boundaries, and of course, for being another ocean garbage dump...the currents deposit much of their plastic debris here, in this critical ecosystem that is underexplored.  Apparently Doug's mission has to do with a specific type of frog, but he says it is absolutely fascinating to see the interspecies relationships between all of the tiny lifeforms in the Sargassum, from seahorses to fish to frogs.  During the question period someone asked him how he ended up with this amazing career.  He is a polite and young(ish Scottish lad) who says he just stopped one day and wondered what the coolest job he could think of might be.  Wildlife diving photographer was his immediate answer, so he got in his car and drove straight to England to work his way into the BBC. In a few years found himself diving with Killer Whales in Antarctica.  Makes you wonder what is possible for us all if we stop to dream and take a few risks along the way.