The Bermuda End-to-End today announced three recipients for its new Catlin Marine Grant, a three-year initiative to support charitable programmes aimed at raising awareness of, and preserving and protecting Bermuda’s marine environment.

“We are very excited to announce three local charities who will receive support from this new award,” said Graham Pewter, CEO and President of Catlin Bermuda. “The goal for the three-year life of the Catlin Marine Grant is to encourage projects which have measurable outcomes and are sustainable over time.

“It was our wish, in creating this $100,000 grant, to support meaningful initiatives within the local charitable and scientific community. We are pleased to be able to fulfill this.”

The Catlin Marine Grant evolved from the reef-mapping work undertaken by the Catlin Seaview Survey, a series of worldwide scientific expeditions launched by Catlin in 2012 to document the composition and health of the world’s coral reefs.

“A total of nine charities made applications for funds from the Catlin Marine Grant,” said Anne Mello, Chair of the End-to-End Charitable Trust. “We were able to settle on three deserving projects, run by established organizations, which together meet the goals of the grant.”

The three awardees were: the Bermuda Reef Ecosystem Analysis and Monitoring Programme [BREAM] at the Bermuda Zoological Society; the Bermuda National Trust; and Keep Bermuda Beautiful.

The largest award – which will span three years – will support BREAM, a scientific research effort to build detailed information about Bermuda’s coral reefs.

Over the past several decades, there has been a dramatic decline in the health of coral reef systems globally. Bermuda is one of the few remaining locations with relatively healthy reefs, which serve as an important indicator of global reef health and provide a setting where reef plants and animals survive.

In the past 5 years the BREAM team have mapped all coral reefs across the Bermuda Platform to a Geographic Information System database, and made its data available to the public.

“The BREAM study dovetails well with the goals of the Catlin Seaview Survey,” said Mr. Pewter.

Funding from the Catlin Marine Grant, he added, will develop local capacity to monitor the growth potential of Bermuda’s reefs, to determine local threats to reef growth and find ways to better manage these threats. The concentration will be on the outer rim of the reefs surrounding Bermuda.

Two smaller grants were awarded as well. The Bermuda National Trust received a grant to pay for 10 new special waste bins for fishing lines, as part of its Monofilament Recovery & Recycling Programme. Currently, there are 12 bins in use that control fishing line waste at popular onshore fishing locations.

Keep Bermuda Beautiful also received a grant to support its “Washed Ashore Project” which consists of beach surveys to measure marine plastic stranded on Bermuda’s shores and to create marine science educational materials to be used in Bermuda’s schools.

The Catlin Marine Grant new initiative stands alongside the funds raised for other Bermuda charities by Catlin End-to-End participants in the May 3, 2014 Island-wide event. Each year, the event raises up to $250,000 to support local good works.