Washington, DC – The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) announced the award of White Water to Blue Water (WW2BW) Partnership Initiative grants designed to foster innovative partnerships to encourage cooperation, build sustainable development processes and improve environmental impacts in the Gulf of Mexico and The Wider Caribbean. Eleven grants totaling nearly $300,000 were awarded for projects ranging from $13,750 - $25,000.

“We are pleased to announce this second round of WW2BW grants and are proud to be associated with such worthy projects that will have lasting and positive impacts on ocean and coastal communities in the Wider Caribbean,” said National Marine Sanctuary Foundation President and CEO Lori Arguelles. “The work of our grant recipients will help improve conditions on both land and water.”

The WW2BW grant program builds partnerships to improve coastal and marine ecosystem-based management, integrated watershed management, sustainable tourism, and environmentally sound marine transportation. This effort was developed as a result of the framework set up during the WW2BW Partnership Conference in 2004 to encourage groups to address priority issues with a common goal and strategy. Funding for this effort is made available through a grant from the
U. S. Department of State Third Border Initiative, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) Initiative Economic Support Funds.

The complete list of White Water to Blue Water grant recipients includes:

• Conservation International, Washington, DC: $25,000, for the Protecting Marine Biodiversity: Mapping sensitive marine areas where cruise ship wastewater discharge should be avoided project to identify, map and ensure that these sensitive sites are included on officially recognized navigational charts, to avoid millions of gallons of wastewater discharged daily from cruise ships in the Caribbean.

• CORALINA, San Andres Island, Colombia: $21,850 for the Reducing watercraft impacts on coral reef ecosystems in the Seaflower Marine Protected Area, San Andres Archipelago, Colombia project to conserve and improve the sustainability of corals, mangroves and seagrass beds in the Seaflower Marine Protected Area by incorporating boundaries into national and international nautical charts; by reducing the physical impacts from fishing and recreational boating; and by promoting formal partnerships to encourage administrative conservation.

• EcoLogic Development Fund, Cambridge, MA: $25,000 for the Conservation tourism by indigenous communities in the Sarstoon Temash Region of Belize project that will reduce pressure on the National Park in Belize by putting in place the necessary physical and social infrastructure to make eco/ethno-tourism a reality for buffer zone communities and to improve the health of the population which is dependent on clean drinking water and sufficient food cultivation.

• EcoLogic Development Fund, Cambridge, MA: $25,000 for the Planning and implementing integrated watershed management in the Rio Papagayo watershed in Mexico’s Sierro de Guerrero with an emphasis on community participation and payment for ecosystem services project will implement an integrated watershed management program of the nine rivers in the Sierra de Guerrero mountain range area to address pollution and reforestation of degraded areas.

• Grupo Jaragua Inc., Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: $25,000, for the Strengthen Caribbean MPA’s personnel in ecosystem based management by enhancing skills in the use of marine acoustics for habitat mapping and fish detection project will strengthen partnerships in habitat mapping, GIS and fish distribution, in order to minimize environmental damage caused by large-scale tourist development in coastal areas.

• Humane Society International, Washington, DC: $25,000, for the Dolphin conservation through sustainable tourism project to assess the dolphin population in the coastal waters of the Dominican Republic, investigate the patterns of dolphin habitat use, educate the population on sustaining dolphin-based tourism and promote sustainable and environmentally friendly tourism programs.

• Conservation International Guyana, Queenstown, Georgetown, Guyana: $24,900 for the Integrated community-based watershed management in the Upper Essequibo River of Guyana project to address problems with the Essequibo River by providing an indigenous community with the training, equipment and guidance to develop and maintain sustainable land and resource use practices.

• Netherlands Antilles Coral Reef Initiative (NACRI), Curacao, Netherlands Antilles: $24,132 for Southeastern Caribbean Coral Reef Nutrient Monitoring Initiative project to implement a new type of coral reef monitoring in St. Lucia, linking their condition more directly to the effects of island watershed and land-based sources of pollution.

• Coral Reef Alliance, San Francisco, CA: $23,331 for The Coral Reef Sustainable Destination (CRSD) Program to provide customized training and technical assistance to help San Pedro, Belize manage and conserve coral reef protected areas, institutionalize environmental best business practices and to facilitate local conservation projects.

• Wildlife Trust, St. Petersburg, FL: $21,650, for the Countering emerging watercraft-related manatee deaths in Belize project to study the causes of manatee mortality, note manatee population distribution and habitat usage and provide information for the government of Belize to develop and implement management actions at the community and national level to ensure fewer manatee deaths by watercraft.

• Friends of the Environment, Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas: $19,490, for the Mangrove-Coral Reef Connectivity: Increasing public awareness and education concerning a critical aspect of marine ecosystem-based management project will teach local students about the connection between mangrove areas and downstream coral reefs and the fish that travel between the two.

• Caribbean Student Environmental Alliance, Chattanooga, TN: $15,900, for the Environmental Caretakers of Dominica project to engage students and teachers to protect and restore the Roseau River watershed and implement monitoring and restoration projects to improve the health of the watershed and associated coral reefs.

• The University of the West Indies, Barbados: $13,750, for the Seamoss Farming Project in Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines project will train members of a youth club in seamoss cultivation and marketing for the development of a farm to produce and process crops of seamoss.