The Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR) is continuing to do its part in a global census of marine life.

?People have been pulling fish out of the water for a long time and we have very little information on what was there in the past, and what is there now,? explained BBSR president and director Dr. Tony Knap.

The aim of the census, he said, is to determine what was in the oceans and how that is changing. The project is funded by the Alfred Sloan Foundation in the US, the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanographic Partnership Programme.

The European Union is also funding several of the projects and various governments around the world are lending their support.

Two studies are being conducted in Bermuda as part of the census. One is a study on zooplankton, small organisms such as jellyfish which play an important part in the ?biological pump?, or the movement of carbon dioxide and dissolved inorganic carbon through the water column.

The study is examining how diverse zooplankton are in the area around Bermuda, and their variability over time. It is part of the Bermuda Atlantic Timeseries Programme, the most studied ocean project in the world.

The second study out of Bermuda for the Census is called the ?Cephbase?, and is a study on cephlapods, creatures with feet as heads such as squid, octopus and puddlefish. That study is being conducted by new faculty member Dr. James Wood and is being funded through the census and is examining the worldwide distribution of cephlapods.