Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute

Description:

• This is the newest blockbuster attraction of Bermuda, a glitzy, metallic, and electronicized counterpart to the rich patina and genuine historicity of the Commissioner's House at the Royal Dockyard, with which it is sometimes compared. The force behind it is Teddy Tucker, the dynamic but quirky and endlessly controversial patriarch of Bermuda's underwater wreck explorations. At least some of the video presentations you'll see inside feature him as its spokesperson and centerpiece. There's something very akin to a museum of science and industry within this glistening, multimedia extravaganza. Various rooms are devoted to the underwater geology of Bermuda, one of the world's largest collection of seashells, bioluminescence and the creatures that produce it, and a showcase of the treasure that Tucker salvaged from underwater wrecks. Ironically, the exhibit that remains in our mind long after our visit involved a grove of Bermudian cedars which were covered by rising waters during the melting of glaciers after the last Ice Age, and which were ripped off the sea bed by one of Tucker's crew -- proof positive of (relatively) recent drastic fluctuations in sea level.

• © Frommer's 2013