Bermuda, February 25, 2008: The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) is pleased to announce a second postgraduate programme in cooperation with the University of Southampton (UoS) in the United Kingdom. Postgraduate research students enrolled in the graduate school of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, can undertake research at BIOS to earn their PhD in Ocean Sciences and Marine Biology.

"The University of Southampton is one of the top ten research universities in the UK. The National Oceanography Centre is also the country's focus for oceanography and represents an unparalleled investment in marine and earth sciences and technology," states [who?] from the University. It was also awarded the highest possible grade for teaching in an institutional audit in 2003.

This exceptional educational opportunity will allow UoS-BIOS PhD students to benefit from the broad academic environment of a major research university, combined with the resources of BIOS - a research institute that conducts world-class field science from its mid-Atlantic location. Bermuda's sub-tropical location in the Sargasso Sea region of the North Atlantic Ocean is ideal for easy access to coral reefs and deep-ocean environments. This area is broadly representative of vast tropical and subtropical regions across the global ocean. The Bermuda pedestal is home to a rich array of coral reef, intertidal and subtidal environments. BIOS is also one of only two blue-water institutions in the world, allowing studies to be carried out on the ocean and its inhabitants without the variable of anthropogenic pollution influencing results.

"There has been an educational component to all our research since the Institute's inception in 1903," said Dr. Anthony H. Knap, President and Director of BIOS. "But our longstanding educational mission has been to offer a new postgraduate experience, providing opportunities for fieldwork in the open ocean. The classroom on the Bank of Bermuda Atlantic Explorer provides a truly unique opportunity for PhD students." Dr. Knap goes on to explain, "The UoS agreement allows for PhD students to earn their qualification by thesis only, whereas our relationship with Princeton is a joint coursework and fieldwork PhD. Thus our strategy is to provide a broad range of options for students from around the world to achieve a PhD through cooperation with these two exceptionally well respected Universities."

Today's undergraduates and postgraduates are looking for hands-on educational experiences, which BIOS is well positioned to offer. The UoS-BIOS graduate student will become an integral part of the BIOS research community with special attention geared towards training as an oceanographer or marine biologist. BIOS and its faculty will continue to guide the career paths of young scientists, becoming internationally recognized as a distinctive educational experience while enhancing its educational mission with this unique opportunity for postgraduate work.

The 2008 BIOS Explorer Programme kicks off next week, Monday January 28, with nearly 2000 students expected to attend. Modeled on successful elements from the JASON Project (a programme affiliated with BIOS for more than ten years), the Explorer Programme directly exposes students and teachers to environmental issues and local research projects conducted by the Institute. This year's Programme "On the Rock" explores the effects of global climate change on our island, the deep-ocean around us, and our island caves and coral reefs. There will be an interactive broadcast filmed by local production company, as well as a series of activities for students working with a team of dynamic BIOS scientists.

"On the Rock students examine the biology, chemistry and geology of Bermuda in order to understand the latest scientific research and preserve the local environment. We dig deep below the surface to explore cave systems, chart the ocean depths, measure coral growth and preserve local species", said JP Skinner, BIOS Education Officer and leader of the Waterstart and Explorer Programmes.

The Explorer Programme utilizes research conducted during Waterstart in the summer of 2007. During that programme students (dubbed 'BioNauts') participated in field-work investigating corals and chemistry, ocean acidification and reef health, cave exploration and deep-ocean mapping. Experiments included fish surveys, coral growth studies, salinity and water quality testing, ecoli testing, depth soundings and transects, equipment, Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) piloting, and the Longtail Project. Host researchers included Drs. Andersson and de Putron of BIOS, Drs. Glasspool formerly of Conservation Services and Dr. Tom Iliffe from the Texas A&M University, and Patrick Talbot of the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo (BAMZ).

The Explorer Programme also enhances science curriculum for teachers, suggesting activities to take back to the classroom. This year's Programme included an art competition held in November - "Where Art & Science Meet", a cross-curriculum initiative to bring art and science together in the classroom based on the Programme themes of Bermuda's marine heritage and environment. The result is a celebration of our fascinating island and an increased understanding of its marine heritage.

BIOS Explorer: On the Rock will be held between January 28th and February 1st, and then again from February 4th through February 8th, 2008. Local students and their teachers will be able to participate in one of a series of programmes held daily at 10am and 1pm at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Ferry Reach. For more information and registration, contact BIOS Education Officer J.P. Skinner by 297-1880 x241 or email jp.skinner@bios.edu, or visit http://www.bios.edu/education/k_12/bios_explorer.html

The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) has been awarded $500,000, in the first year of a five year programme, to establish the Nippon Foundation (NF) and the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) Centre of Excellence (CofE). These funds will be used to train young scientists from developing countries in Observational Oceanography, with the intention of educating a core group of researchers who will continue to study the marine ecosystems in their home countries well into the future.

"I sincerely hope that the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, selected as 'Centre of Excellence', POGO, and the Nippon Foundation can work together to foster young researchers who will be qualified to become leaders in the field of Oceanography, and that the institute will become a focal point for human capacity building in international oceanography." Said Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation.

The NF and POGO Centre of Excellence promotes integrated, multidisciplinary oceanography on a global scale. The goal of the programme at BIOS will be to expand a world-wide capacity to observe the oceans, cultivate human resources in developing countries, and to expand international networking in ocean sciences. Located in the Sargasso Sea, BIOS is home to the 168 ft R/V Bank of Bermuda Atlantic Explorer. With a dedicated student lab and berths for up to twenty-two scientists, students will spend considerable time at sea as part of the Centre of Excellence Course - training which will be key to their practical understanding of oceanography. CofE students will also benefit from BIOS' eight long-term ocean, atmospheric, and near-shore observational programmes including:

• Hydrostation "S" - the longest, year-round database at one point in the open ocean
• The Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS)
• The Oceanic Flux Program (OFP)
• The Bermuda Microbial Observatory
• The Global CO2 and Ocean Acidification Programme
• The Marine Environmental Programme (MEP) - a network of nearshore research
• The Bermuda Environmental Quality Programme, with a focus on local and global water and atmospheric systems.

CofE students will receive hands-on training using state-of-the art instrumentation with BIOS faculty and staff involved in the eight BIOS time-series and observatory programmes, including topics such as satellite oceanography, ocean physics, geochemistry, biology, ocean-atmosphere interactions, microbial communities, and deep-sea moorings. Observational Oceanography workshops will also be delivered by previous NF-POGO visiting Professors including Drs. Trevor Platt, Robert Frouin, and guest lectures and workshops by the numerous research scientists from institutions around the world who visit BIOS each year to work on the R/V Bank of Bermuda Atlantic Explorer.

The course is seen as the beginning of a long-term, sustained effort at capacity building in Observational Oceanography in the Southern Hemisphere. "We are delighted and honoured to have been selected for this opportunity among such recognized institutions." Said Dr. Anthony H. Knap, President and Director of BIOS. "I sincerely commend the Nippon Foundation's vision in investing in the enhancement of the scientific capabilities in oceanography of developing countries of the Southern Hemisphere."

The activities of the trainees will be monitored by POGO for some years after the completion of the course. It is also anticipated that the strongest participants will have further opportunities for advanced training and scientific exchange with other POGO member institutions around the world. "Despite the efforts of our capacity building project, I understand that not only are human resources in oceanography still necessary, but there is also a shortage of links between these human resources and international oceanographic research networks." Said Mr. Sasakawa, "In that sense, I believe that the 'Centre of Excellence' will be a new departure in human resource development systems, and will become a very significant project in oceanography." He said.

Courses are scheduled for August 2008 and further Information can be found at: www.bios.edu/education/

International co-operation and co-ordination are vital for understanding the ocean and the impact of climate change, the executive director of Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) told The Royal Gazette.

POGO is based at the Bedford Institute for Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a consortium of major oceanographic institutes of the world, including Bermuda's own Bermuda Institute for Ocean Studies (BIOS). BIOS director Dr. Tony Knapp is now an executive member of POGO which has about 35 members.

Dr. Shubha Sathyendranath, who has been POGO executive director for about seven years, was on the island for the organisation's annual conference. This was the first year the conference was held in Bermuda at BIOS.

"Bermuda is an appropriate place to have the meeting because BIOS over the years has made many significant contributions to long term observations of the ocean," said Dr. Sathyendranath. "It is definitely well respected in the community."

"The meeting will be dealing with ocean observations in general, and why it is important for our society to have sustained, long-term integrated observations of the ocean at the global scale. We will also be discussing how best it can be achieved through international collaboration and co-ordination."

One of POGO's aims is to exchange information and avoid duplication of effort in the scientific community. It is also a way to share resources and minimise expenses.

"It is not about competition; it is about cooperation," she said. "Here we are talking about the scientific community coming together to achieve a common goal."

Dr. Sathyendranath's personal research focus is phytoplankton, the photosynthesizing organisms in plankton, mainly unicellular algae and cyanobacteria.

"I have been involved in the remote sensing of phytoplankton from space, and the study of photosynthesis by phytoplankton at sea and their role in the ocean carbon cycle and its relevance for issues related to climate," she said.

She said just how something that cannot be seen by the naked eye, can be seen from space is "rather interesting".

"Phytoplankton are microscopic plants," she said. "They carry out the same function as plants on land, which is photosynthesis. They have all the necessary instruments to do that and that includes having plant pigments. It is the same pigment that is in plants on the land that makes them green. Although, phytoplankton contain the same pigments in microscopic amounts, their collective impact is tremendous. If you look at the sea from space, you can see small changes in the colour of the oceans which is associated in changes in the amount of chlorophyll in the water. That is the basic signal we use to detect changes in the ocean."

She said it has been discovered that these microscopic plants cycle as much carbon in a given year on a global scale as do all the terrestrial plants all together.

"That is 50 gigatons of carbon," said Dr. Sathyendranath. "So they are very important. So what we would like to know next is how ocean climate change will affect photosynthesis and affect the carbon cycle. We can't ignore any part of the globe in these studies."

Bermuda is associated with the Sargasso Sea and is relatively barren in terms of phytoplankton, she said, but scientists do find changes in phytoplankton activity, even around Bermuda.

"When you are doing remote sensing (by satellite) you can look at Bermuda sitting in Canada," she said.

"So we have looked at the Sargasso Sea and the waters around Bermuda. Bermuda has a very long time series station here. [The time series takes ocean data such as temperature at regular intervals and records it.] So everyone is looking at that data to test or validate what the satellite is showing."

Bermuda: Associate Research Scientist Dr. Michael Lomas at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) in collaboration with University of Rhode Island (URI) has been awarded grants totaling $800,000 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Polar Programs and the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) to study the impact of climate change-induced variability in this extremely important ocean ecosystem of the Bering Sea.

Among the most productive marine ecosystems on Earth, this region supports one of the planet's largest commercial fisheries. The Bering Sea and other sub-Arctic and Arctic seas are predicted by many scientists to be among the regions most severely affected by climate change, as small changes in the heat content of the water column can have a disproportionately large effect on the spatial distribution and dynamics of sea ice.

Dr. Lomas' group, along with scientists from the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, has been funded to conduct primary and export production measurements. The scientific team will be examining shifts in phytoplankton productivity, abundance and species, both in open-water areas and in areas where the ice cover is receding.

This research will be a key component of a six-year, $50 million effort by the NSF and NPRB to determine how the eastern Bering Sea - between the Aleutian Islands and St. Lawrence Island, Alaska - is likely to respond to global climate events.

"Relatively little is known about how the lower levels of the ecosystem respond to climate change. We will be studying the response of phytoplankton to the year-to-year variability in climate and sea ice extent. In a region that produces more than 50% of the U.S. seafood harvest, among the broader impacts of this research we will improve our understanding of climate-driven ecological changes occurring over the past decade in this productive and economically important region", said Dr. Lomas.

In this new, jointly funded NSF and National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program $4.2 million in funding also includes grants to scientists from the University of Miami, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Oregon State University, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The project will also provide new educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students as well as journalists, who report on this research at the local, state and national level. Significant integration has been proposed with other BEST investigators, students and post-docs.

The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) is pleased to be hosting the Human Health Working Group of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) from November 27th to 30th, 2007. Public health representatives from the entire Arctic region will be in attendance.

The primary function of AMAP is to advise the governments of the eight Arctic countries (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States) on matters relating to threats to the Arctic region from pollution, and associated issues.

The Group is meeting in conjunction with the BIOS International Center of Ocean and Human Health (ICOHH) which was formed in 1998. BIOS' ICOHH initiative is designed to address both the health of the ocean and the health from the ocean on an international scale. Scientists at BIOS investigate areas such as ecotoxicology, coral reefs and fisheries, pollution threats, mariculture, and genomics. The AMAP Human Health Working Group produced an assessment of human health issues in the Arctic in 2002. The aim of this workshop is to update our knowledge of the effects of pollutants on human and environmental health.

The AMAP Conference follows on the heels of another conference held at BIOS in the end of October on open-ocean genomics. The Genomics Conference brought forty of the top scientists to Bermuda - including the former head of the US National Science Foundation and BIOS Trustee Rita Colwell - to discuss the new challenges of ocean genomics. BIOS is concerned about ocean and human health issues from the ocean as well as of the ocean and these two meetings will provide a research framework for both issues. This year's conference at BIOS will cover such subjects as factors influencing human exposures to contaminants: Levels and trends of contaminants: And health and effects of contaminants and its relevance.

The AMAP is a process integrating both monitoring and assessment activities, in order to:

• produce integrated assessment reports on pollution status and trends of conditions of Arctic ecosystems;
• identify possible causes for changing conditions;
• detect emerging problems, their possible causes, and the potential risk to Arctic ecosystems including indigenous peoples and other Arctic residents;
• recommend actions required to reduce risks to Arctic ecosystems.

To prepare its assessments, AMAP:

• designed and implemented a coordinated programme to monitor the levels of pollutants and assess the effects of pollution in all compartments of the Arctic environment (atmospheric, terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, and human populations);
• instituted a process to produce assessment reports, which are performed according to agreed guidelines and are based on: (i) data already published in scientific literature, (ii) data obtained from AMAP's monitoring programme, and (iii) traditional knowledge.

BIOS is an independent marine science organization. It was founded in 1903 as Bermuda Biological Station by scientists from Harvard and New York University to take advantage of Bermuda's ideal location for deep-ocean and coral reef research and education. BBSR is a Registered Bermuda Charity and a U.S. 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

Contact:
Tiffany Wardman
Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
Media Relations
441.297.1880 extension 256

From the center of the Atlantic, at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), Matthew R. Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (2005), will speak on the state of the world's oil supply on Friday, November 9, 2007 at 6:30 pm (AST). Mr. Simmons, a former Bush Administration advisor, and trustee of (BIOS) will speak as one of the world's leading experts on the topic of 'peak oil'. His lecture titled "Riding Out the Hurricane: How to Prepare for Peak Oil" will be held in Hanson Hall at 6:30pm, on the BIOS campus, Ferry Reach.

Mr. Simmons' book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (2005) has been listed on the Wall Street Journal's best-seller list. BIOS President Dr. Anthony Knap commented, "Matt's work has been so important to the global conversation on peak oil. Entire industries are rethinking their business models and how they evaluate risk." Mr. Simmons calculations created shock waves when his book was first released. Senior Research Scientist and Director of Research Dr. Nicholas Bates adds, "As we face the realities of peak oil, we must be mindful that oceans make up 70% of the earth's surface. They absorb nearly all of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide created. Understanding the complexities of the ocean processes, the impact on climate and marine biodiversity and the reality of ocean acidification are especially crucial as alternative energy options are explored and evaluated."

Matt Simmons' work has been translated into many languages, most notably Chinese. His controversial book addresses the lack of transparency regarding the data on the world's remaining oil reserves. According to Mr. Simmons calculations, Saudi Arabia is about to face the exhaustion of its giant fields and, in the relatively near future, will probably experience a sharp decline in output. Stating in his book "[Saudi Arabian production] is at or very near its peak sustainable volume ... and it is likely to go into decline in the very foreseeable future." He has also predicted (and wagered) in a New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Maass that the price of oil will be at least $200 per barrel by 2010 (in 2005 dollars). As an oil industry insider and an advisor for the Bush Administration, his examination of oil reserve decline rates has raised awareness of the unreliability of Middle East oil reserves. Mr. Simmons has also contradicted the belief that we can continue to increase our yearly consumption of oil, rather than conserve what is left and begin the transition to alternative energy sources.

Mr. Simmons is Chairman of Simmons & Company International, a specialized energy investment banking firm, with offices in Houston, Texas; London, England; Boston, Massachusetts; and Aberdeen, Scotland, Oslo, Norway and Dubai, UAE. The firm has completed approximately 694 investment banking projects for its worldwide energy clients at a combined dollar value in excess of $101.1 billion. Among his early clients at a small investment bank/advisory firm in Boston were several subsea service companies. By 1973, almost all of his clients were oil service companies. Following the 1973 Oil Shock, Simmons decided to create a Houston-based firm to concentrate on providing highest quality investment banking advice to the worldwide oil service industry. Over time, the specialization expanded into investment banking covering all aspects of the global energy industry.

Mr. Simmons serves on the Board of Directors of Brown-Forman Corporation, The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (Boston), Houston Technology Center (Houston) and the Center for Houston's Future (Houston). He also serves on The University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Foundation Board of Visitors (Houston) and is a Trustee of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. In addition, he is past Chairman of the National Ocean Industry Association. Mr. Simmons serves on the Board of Dean's Advisors of Harvard Business School and is a past President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association and a former member of the Visiting Committee of Harvard Business School. He is a member of the National Petroleum Council, Council on Foreign Relations and The Atlantic Council of the United States. Mr. Simmons is also a Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Mr. Simmons has published numerous energy papers for industry journals and is a frequent speaker at government forums, energy symposiums and in boardrooms of many leading energy companies around the world.