The island’s link to the airport and the East End is to serve as the site of a project using coral reefs to protect man-made structures against storms.

The Causeway Project, led by the Living Reefs Foundation, aims to implant rescued and laboratory-grown corals to reinforce the bridge.

Samia Sarkis, the leader of the project, said the goal was to use the strength of reefs to protect against storm surges and hurricanes.

Dr Sarkis added: “The Darwin Plus fund has given us the capacity to build our infrastructure using state-of-the-art technology.

“This enables us to investigate the complexities of coral reproduction and reliably produce juveniles independent of environmental changes and disturbances, and quantify our coral restoration impact at scale.

“Both awards, received since 2023, are instrumental in significantly advancing our vision — the development of a scalable and cost-effective model in restoring damaged reefs and protecting the coast from storm and hurricane impact.”

The Causeway Project will be supported by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Works and Engineering.

The Darwin Plus Fund will further offer cash through the British Government’s conservation programme, the Darwin Initiative.

Andrew Murdoch, the Governor, joined Dr Sarkis and her team to view the coral hatchery at Coney Island in Hamilton Parish.

He learnt about the research at the facility before travelling to the waters of Castle Harbour to attach laboratory-grown coral to an underwater structure.

The coral, which is given an identifier to monitor growth, was named “Palmy” in honour of the Governor’s famed cat, Palmerston.

Mr Murdoch said the work being done by the Living Reefs Foundation had “potentially global significance”.

He explained: “With the threat of sea level rise and increasingly extreme weather events, we need to look to nature-based solutions to help us protect our coastlines.

“The work being done in Bermuda is critical to understanding how to promote coral growth in the laboratory for successful placement at sea.”

The project will be instrumental in forming a technical manual on restoration practices through photogrammetry, which uses overlapping photographs to create a 3D model.

This manual will be available through the Living Reefs Foundation’s website.

The data collected by the Causeway Project could inform new ways to build resilient long-term breakwaters that could be reinforced in cost-effective ways.

It could further serve as a way to track impacts to the seabed by vessel groundings and offer a baseline for Environmental Impact Assessments.