Scientists have produced an aquatic road map of our underwater realm, which will not only help divers and marine users but assist in the protection of our coral reefs for future generations.

The Bermuda Reef Ecosystem Assessment and Mapping (BREAM) project aims to monitor the health of our reefs and the distribution of coral and fish species across the Island platform.

The project is the marine part of the Bermuda Zoological Society's Bermuda Biodiversity Project, which aims to build a database of all Island species. Funded by the Department of Conservation Services with grants from other bodies such as NOAA (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), its studies will not only help to shape fisheries management but the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

The survey of Bermuda's coral reefs began several years ago, with an initiative by Dr. Annie Glasspool of the Bermuda Zoological Society and Dr. Wolfgang Sterrer, then curator of the Bermuda Natural History Museum.

The mapping of our waters flowed from a terrestrial survey of Bermuda's land mass, with the 1997-8 Government commission of high resolution aerial photographs covering every inch of the Island. A photo mosaic of Bermuda's territorial waters followed, and in 2000, PhD student Dr. Thad Murdoch set about outlining the edges of each reef from the aerial pictures.

Using a geographic information system software programme, he determined the size and coordinates of each reef, and in 2004 took over the BREAM initiative full-time as project leader.

Now, more than 350 dives later, Dr. Murdoch and his team of interns have succeeded in mapping all of Bermuda's reefs, researching habitats across the platform. Up to 120 sites have so far been surveyed, 50 of which will be monitored on a regular scientific basis to determine coral health, water quality and species.

It has been a labour of love but now the BREAM team's diligent mapping of our waters is revealing fascinating secrets about our underwater kingdom.

The Bermuda Reef Ecosystem Assessment and Mapping (BREAM) project has not only discovered 40 potential new dive sites but has given our reefs a clean bill of health, thanks to up to seven thriving dominant species.

They have also uncovered intriguing characteristics about our aquatic population. Did you know that certain fish species are territorial? There are signs that three types of trigger fish are carving up the Island's lagoon into their own individual feeding grounds.

The team have also discovered less healthy aspects to our marine environment — a dwindling shark population and a 50 percent decline in our seagrass.

Dr. Thad Murdoch relates the BREAM project's importance to the Island's limited land mass of 21 sq miles.

"Although Bermuda's land is only small in size, our shallow reef system is 1,000 sq km and that is still Bermuda — part of our territorial waters," he says.

"It is important we map the shallow reefs and know where they are. Other groups (such as BIOS — the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences) have been monitoring specific spots on the reef for years, but this means there is still a huge area out there which is completely unknown.

"For example, no one has scientifically-assessed much of the West or East End, so we had no idea just how healthy the reefs were way out of Somerset or St. George's. What we have done is to map the reefs and then make assessments of the entire platform."

Dr. Murdoch describes the Island's reefs as sitting in a 40-mile wide oval lagoon above the platform.

"All the reefs have now been located and numbered," he says. "So we can easily find which ones are within certain boundaries such as protected fishing areas, lobster-protected zones, and MPAs."

Dr. Murdoch describes himself as a 'coral ecologist' and for his PhD in Marine Sciences (University of South Alabama), studied how different types of coral interact in Bermuda and Florida.

The 42-year-old Bermudian is the son of marine conservationist and underwater photographer Ian Murdoch. For his graduate studies he undertook assessments of the Florida Keys Reef Tract. He has also worked as a consultant on coral reefs in Belize and Panama, and the Flower Gardens of Texas.

Out of the water, he enjoys photography, painting and the arts, and back on the water, goes boating and kayaking.

Dr. Murdoch, of Paget, is on the Marine Environmental Committee of the Bermuda National Trust and is a scientific advisor on the Bermuda Environmental Coalition of Organisations.

Since 2004, with the help of 32 interns and volunteers, the BREAM team have surveyed each coral reef using the AGRRA (Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment) protocol. Between them they have logged more than 1,000 dives, visiting two sites a day.

The surveys involved examination of coral health and size, number of species, symptoms of disease, plus algae. In addition the team undertook REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) fish surveys.

"We are getting information on all the fish in Bermuda, such as parrotfish, trigger fish, groupers, grunts, snappers and angel fish," says Dr. Murdoch.

The data will now be used in shaping future Government marine policy.

"We have made a map of juveniles versus adults for each different type of fish, based on where we know the fish are distributed," says Dr. Murdoch.

"Fish are protected here in Bermuda to a high regard already, but there are areas which seem to be very special and which deserve more protection.

"Certainly baby groupers, which are about 1ft long, live among the rocks of North Shore and so they get caught by hook and line a lot."

Dr. Murdoch says: "There are specific areas among the reefs where juvenile fish tend to be very abundant, and certainly they deserve some kind of protection. We know where the baby grouper, baby snapper and parrotfish all are, and Government will be able use this information to help guide fishing management."

The BREAM team's surveys will also be welcomed by divers, with Dr. Murdoch saying there are 40 potential new dive sites with a small 'canyon' running from the inside of the shallow lagoon to the deeper waters of the outer reef rim. One such example lies between Eastern Blue Cut and Snake Pit.

"There are a bunch of passages out there that are beautiful dive sites," says Dr. Murdoch. "Having such deep water next to shallow water is something people like diving in, and we have found 40 potential sites of this nature."

He says the BREAM project will eventually give a list of these sites to dive operators.

The survey has also yielded benefits for boat users and shipping.

Dr. Murdoch says: "You can also use it for navigation. The old charts of our waters were done for ships navigating Bermuda, so there are huge parts which are inaccurate, which don't show anything. Now we can essentially see every metre of the reef out there."

The data is also being used by the international team working to determine a Total Economic Value (TEV) for Bermuda's coral reefs. Ten experts from Bermuda, the UK and Netherlands are currently employed in a two-year project, funded by the UK Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP), to put a financial value on the Island's pristine reefs. This could then be used to determine a level of compensation in the event of a ship grounding or other damage by marine users.

Coral reefs were picked for the environmental valuation study from among 15 ecosystems in Bermuda.

"Working to an economic value, it means that the reefs will belong to the public and so if someone crashes their boat into a reef they will have to pay that value," says Dr. Murdoch.

"Essentially it will be as if you've walked into a public art gallery and destroyed something, and now you have to pay a fine."

The BREAM project leader adds: "We have also found some interesting patterns in terms of coral and fish distributions, and so we want to find out why those are happening.

"For example, there are three types of trigger fish called tangs, doctorfish and surgeonfish. They all eat the same kind of food but when you map their distribution across the Island platform you can see they are basically splitting up the lagoon.

"The surgeonfish are in-shore, the doctorfish in the middle, and the tangs are out on the edge, so they are essentially sharing that space, to avoid competition with each other. The juveniles essentially start in the same place but then split outwards."

He says: "Corals are essentially doing the same thing in Bermuda. In the Caribbean there are one or two species which really dominate and the other 30 or so species are very rare. But in Bermuda we have six or seven species that seem to be sharing space, so this means we have a much more resilient reef, because if one species is to get sick for a decade or so, the others will fill a gap while they recover.

"We have gathered a lot of information about the patterns of fish and coral out there, and so this year we are taking a break from surveying to do field ecology, with different experiments on the reefs to understand the mechanisms behind these patterns."

The team however, have also noticed a marked decline in the shark population and abundance of seagrass beds.

"During the project we never saw any sharks in the lagoon," says Dr. Murdoch. "Certainly 30 years ago we would have seen some, so it shows that some of our predators have disappeared. This is perhaps due to overfishing."

"When we started our surveys in 2004, we also discovered that seagrass seemed to be dying across a lot of the outer reef. That summer we looked at 55 spots, mapping seagrass across the platform. We found out that probably half of our seagrass has disappeared in the last ten years. A local team of scientists, Dr. Sarah Manuel and Dr. Kathy Coates of Conservation Services, are currently working with a group of scientists in Florida trying to figure out why."

The BREAM project was groundbreaking in its inception, and now other countries are following Bermuda's lead.

"Certainly when we started we were way ahead of the game," says Dr. Murdoch. "Everyone is catching up now, and a lot of the US reefs are being mapped, but we were five years ahead of the game.

"Going forward we will try to get more funding and more staff, to keep charging ahead," he says.

Emphasising the importance of the Island's coral reefs to its people, Dr. Murdoch says: "Bermuda is essentially a model system to show other islands in the Caribbean how to manage their reefs better, and this also encourages scientists and tourists to come here from around the world, to see how pretty our reefs are.

"We are essentially the most northern reef system in the world. The Caribbean has been dying for the past 30 years, due to bad land management and the Amazon, Orinoco and Mississippi rivers flowing into its waters.

"Bermuda is away from all those land influences, so we don't get the disease and die-offs that are happening in the Caribbean. We have also managed to escape bleaching by very hot summers in recent years, so we are one of few reef systems that haven't been destroyed.

"We also protect all our parrotfish, grouper and corals, so essentially Bermuda is a gigantic Marine Protected Area. We have managed our reef system very well and are now being rewarded for that.

"Coral reefs are healthy across Bermuda, despite dramatic declines in reefs throughout the Caribbean. Reef management practices are helping our reefs to stay healthy, by protecting corals and fish.

"Our project will help in its management and guide research. Now we have this big snapshot from the last couple of years, we need to monitor the entire system over time.

"Coral reefs in Bermuda are special, and need to be cherished and protected."

Check out the BREAM project on the Internet by logging on at: http://bermudabream.blogspot.com