Bellairs was initial funding was from a bequest by British naval commander, Carlyon Bellairs, for whom the institute is named.[1] The institute is used by both undergraduate and graduate students in a range of subjects, including marine science, geography, economics, engineering and international development studies.
Bellairs hosts numerous McGill University field-courses and workshops throughout the year, including Applied Tropical Ecology, Geography, and the Barbados Field Study Semester (BFSS). Bellairs also holds annual field courses from other universities from around the world including the University of Toronto (marine biology) and Western Michigan University (archeology).
Location
Folkestone Reef, just north of Holetown, Barbados
Bellairs is located just north of the historic town of Holetown, in the parish of St. James, on the west coast of the Barbados. The facility is situated between the Folkestone Marine Park and Museum,[2] to the south and the Coral Reef Club hotel to the north.
The shallowcoral reef, and calm and clear water found on the west coast of Barbados, make Bellairs ideally suited to marine research. The fringing reef adjacent to the research institute is known as Folkestone Reef, although researchers at the institute typically refer to the two flame-shaped formations as North and South Bellairs. The southern reef extends approximately 900 feet (275 meters) from shore and the northern reef extends approximately 350 feet (107 meters) from shore.
Both reefs have extensive spur and groove formations along their seaward edge, which range in depth from about 15 to 25 feet (4.5 to 7.5 meters). These reefs were extensively mapped in 2018, using 3D modeling techniques, by Canadian company Reef Smart Guides, which was founded, and is managed by, former McGill Universitygraduate students who studied marine biology at Bellairs Research Institute.
Early History
The founding director of Bellairs was McGill University biologist, Dr. John Lewis, who developed an international reputation for his coral reef research in the 1950s and 60s, particularly on the biology and ecology of the Diadema (sea urchin) and flying fish. Dr. Lewis was an early pioneer of scuba diving, which he used to collect data for his research.
Later years
In 1982 Bellairs appointed its first Caribbean director, Barbadian Dr. Wayne Hunte, who helped developed the institute's reputation for applied and contract research work, both in Barbados and across the Caribbean region.
Under his directorship, the Marine Turtle Management Project was formed at Bellairs in 1987, with the aim of raising awareness, and promoting conservation of, sea turtles in Barbados.[3] The project has evolved and expanded over the years and is now known as the Barbados Sea Turtle Project, and is managed from by Dr. Julia Horrocks (one of the original founders), based at the University of the West Indies.
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles starting with Cuba, to the east by the Lesser Antilles, and to the south by the northern coast of South America. The Gulf of Mexico lies to the northwest.
A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fins are also used to increase surface areas for heat transfer purposes, or simply as ornamentation.
Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy.
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
The Seas with Nemo & Friends is a pavilion located in the World Nature section of Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The pavilion is themed as an oceanic exploration base called SeaBase Alpha, with several exhibits devoted to oceanic study. The building includes an aquarium and its attached dark ride attraction, a talk show-type attraction called Turtle Talk with Crush, and the Coral Reef Restaurant. With 5.7 million US gallons of tank volume, the pavilion is also the second-largest aquarium in the U.S. and the sixth-largest in the world.
Marine conservation, also known as ocean conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas through planned management in order to prevent the over-exploitation of these marine resources. Marine conservation is informed by the study of marine plants and animal resources and ecosystem functions and is driven by response to the manifested negative effects seen in the environment such as species loss, habitat degradation and changes in ecosystem functions and focuses on limiting human-caused damage to marine ecosystems, restoring damaged marine ecosystems, and preserving vulnerable species and ecosystems of the marine life. Marine conservation is a relatively new discipline which has developed as a response to biological issues such as extinction and marine habitats change.
Gregory L. Dudek is a Canadian computer scientist specializing in robotics, computer vision, and intelligent systems. He is a chaired professor at McGill University where he has led the Mobile Robotics Lab since the 1990s. He was formerly the director of McGill's school of computer science and before that director of McGill's center for intelligent machines.
Apo Island is a volcanic island covering 74 hectares in land area, 7 kilometers off the southeastern tip of Negros Island and 30 kilometers south of the Negros Oriental capital of Dumaguete in the Philippines. The name "Apo" means "elder" or "respected ancestor" in the Visayan languages.
The Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) is a marine biology laboratory located on the state-owned Coconut Island in Kāneʻohe Bay.
A wild fishery is a natural body of water with a sizeable free-ranging fish or other aquatic animal population that can be harvested for its commercial value. Wild fisheries can be marine (saltwater) or lacustrine/riverine (freshwater), and rely heavily on the carrying capacity of the local aquatic ecosystem.
The hawksbill sea turtle is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus Eretmochelys. The species has a global distribution that is largely limited to tropical and subtropical marine and estuary ecosystems.
Jeremy Bradford Cook Jackson is an American ecologist, paleobiologist, and conservationist. He is an emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, senior scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, and visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. He studies threats and solutions to human impacts on the environment and the ecology and evolution of tropical seas. Jackson has more than 170 scientific publications and 11 books, with nearly 40,000 citations listed on Google Scholar.
Gilbert L. Voss was an American conservationist and oceanographer. He was one of the main persons behind the establishment of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Florida and he spoke out successfully against several proposed real estate developments that might have threatened the ecology of the Florida Keys.
The Molinere Bay Underwater Sculpture Park is a collection of ecological underwater contemporary art located in the Caribbean sea off the west coast of Grenada, West Indies and was created by British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor. In May 2006 the world's first underwater sculpture park was open for public viewing. Taylor's aim was to engage local people with the underwater environment that surrounds them using his works which are derived from life casts of the local community. He installed concrete figures onto the ocean floor, mostly consisting of a range of human forms, from solitary individuals to a ring of children holding hands, facing into the oceanic currents.
Isabelle M. Côté is a professor of marine ecology at Simon Fraser University in Canada.
The St. Croix East End Marine Park (STXEEMP) was established to "protect territorially significant marine resources, and promote sustainability of marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, sea grass beds, wildlife habitats and other resources, and to conserve and preserve significant natural areas for the use and benefit of future generations." It is the U.S. Virgin Islands’ first territorially designated and managed marine protected area (MPA).
Joseph Richard Pawlik is a marine biologist. He is the Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He is best known for studies of sponges on Caribbean coral reefs that reveal ecological principles such as resource trade-offs, trophic cascades and indirect effects.
David Gruber is an American marine biologist, a Presidential Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences at Baruch College, City University of New York, and a National Geographic Explorer.
Joan Chauvin Marsden was a professor of zoology, chair of the zoology department at McGill University, president of the Canadian Society of Zoologists, and director of the Bellairs Institute in Barbados.
Kimberly B. Ritchie is an American marine biologist. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Her research is focused on marine microbiology and how microbes affect animal health in hosts such as corals and sharks.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
