A new project launched by the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo will help pinpoint the healthiest areas of the ocean that surround the Island.

Today is World Oceans Day and along with the Bermuda Reef Ecosystem Assessment and Mapping (BREAM) initiative, BAMZ is launching other programmes to recognise the importance of learning about and preserving the ocean.

The BREAM project will be a critical step in assessing marine health in areas that may not have always been focused on.

Bermudian researcher Thad Murdoch will head up the team of six that will include marine conservation officer Sarah Manuel, trainee conservation officer Joseph Furbert, Bermuda Biodiversity Project (BBP) leader Annie Glasspool, director of the BBP Wolfgang Sterrer, Mark Outerbridge and Judie Clee. Mr. Murdoch said: ?Coral reefs throughout the rest of the Caribbean have suffered dramatic declines in the amount of living coral and Bermuda is one of the very few remaining countries with healthy reefs. This means that Bermuda?s marine habitats are not only important locally but also regionally by acting as an ?ark? or life raft where reef plants and animals can keep on living until the rest of the Caribbean recovers.?

The team is using the Atlantic Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment protocol to compare Bermuda?s reefs with the rest of the Caribbean. The project will ?identify the healthiest areas, as well as those that are being badly damaged by pollution or overfishing or subject to high levels of disease or bleaching?.

The map will allow scientists to view and analyse data and promote more effective resource management, said Dr. Glasspool.

A contingency planning exercise conducted by Bermuda?s Oil Spill Contingency Team will also be launched today.

Director of Environmental Protection, Tom Sleeter, said: ?These exercises are held periodically to test the effectiveness of our response, identify weaknesses in our approaches and devise ways of improving our ability to protect our environment.?

The exercise, an oil industry and Government collaboration, simulates the first three hours of an oil spill incident. ?The main focus of this exercise will be on predicting where the oil will move and arranging for the appropriate deployment of equipment and men,? Dr. Sleeter said.

Shell Oil Bermuda will be hosting ?Exercise Fustic? which will be a ?table top exercise?. The company will test its own contingency plans, review internal communication protocols and determine how well it coordinates with the Oil Spill Contingency Team.

Today also marks Sun-Earth Day. The silhouette of the planet Venus will cross the Sun, a once-in-a-lifetime event which last occurred in 1882. Sun-Earth Day 2004 has selected the transit of Venus as this year?s theme. The event can be viewed online during and after the event safely at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/index_vthome.htm. Bermudians will see the passing beginning at dawn on for about one-and-a-half-hours until about 8 a.m. and it will look like a little dot going across the sun.