Ocean prosperity support swells to $10.1m
Non-profit organisations partnering with the Bermuda Government to implement a marine spatial plan have invested $10.1 million over the past seven years, The Royal Gazette has learnt.
According to parts of an official document seen by this newspaper, one of the organisations, the Waitt Institute, which partnered with the Government and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences to advance the Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme, would commit more support for implementation of the MSP if the Marine Development Act is legally adopted.
As earlier reported, the passing of the legislation would also activate the ocean fund, structured as a private-public fund, with the potential of raising as much as $60 million to enable investments into sustainable blue businesses.
The fund for marine development was gazetted for incorporation in February 2025.
The official BOPP document outlining funding and resources spent on the programme to date, and potential funding and support to be released, is titled Advancing the BOPP 2025 and was shared with a number of stakeholders.
Under a section titled Progress and Partnerships, it said: “Over $10.1 million in technical expertise and financial support has been provided since 2019 by the Waitt Institute, the Waitt Foundation and Oceans 5.”
Oceans 5 is a non-governmental organisation and funder.
Advancing the BOPP noted that Bermuda was at a “pivotal moment” in terms of unlocking future benefits through better stewardship of the ocean.
It said: “Upon legal adoption of the Marine Development Act and accompanying MSP, Bermuda will become eligible for improved partnerships and significant funding from private donors.
“These benefits are contingent on the MSP and include: advancement of the ocean fund …; better access to resources and capacity through improved partnerships and grant eligibility, which can help to improve marine enforcement and monitoring; and support from the Waitt Institute on implementation of the legally adopted MSP.”
It said “world-class” scientific institutions — such as BIOS, the University of California Santa Barbara and SeaSketch — continually provide data and analysis, while the ShellCatch database and app have “modernised” fisheries data management.
Additionally, the document reported that “enhanced enforcement” already showed increased interceptions, supported by the UK Blue Belt Ocean Shield Programme and work on a refinement programme.
The Gazette reported in May that more cases of illegal fishing were making their way to the courts, while Geoff Smith, the director for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, called for stronger penalties.
A forum heard in May that over the previous 24 months, five commercial fishers were among six before the courts for breaching fishing laws for trapping the black grouper, a large, bottom-dwelling reef fish commonly called rockfish.
They were handed fines ranging from $3,500 to $6,500.
Geoff Smith, the director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said at the meeting that catching the grouper species amounted to “taking these fish away from our future generations”.
Additionally, a recreational fisherman who netted seven parrotfish was fined $10,000 in 2025 for spearing the protected species.
He said monitoring was conducted by the DENR in tandem with the Royal Bermuda Regiment Coastguard.
Dr Smith said the DENR had been working on plans to provide extra training to the Department of Public Prosecutions and the Bermuda Police Service.
He spoke of a team effort to police the marine sector, with collaboration between DENR, the Department of Marine and Ports Services base in St George's and the coastguard.
He said the DENR was preparing an agreement with the RBR so that fishery wardens were seconded to coastguard vessels for nine to ten months in a calendar year.
Bermuda is a member of Britain’s Blue Belt Ocean Shield Programme, which purchased equipment and provided training to Bermudian-based enforcement officers.
Dr Smith said that since 2022, the island had received more than $1.1 million in funding for measures such as a sophisticated camera able to work at low light for a coastguard vessel.
Drones are also being explored as an option.
In a section titled Moving Forward, the BOPP document said it was up to Cabinet to now advance the Blue Prosperity Plan, which encompasses the MSP and Blue Economy Strategy under BOPP.
The Marine Development Act, it said, was a “crucial next step” to legally implement the MSP.
The paper added that there would be a phased implementation approach prioritising improved enforcement and that continued dialogue with the fishing community was a “priority”.
“The MDA will legislate the governance, enforcement and implementation of the MSP and will likewise provide guidance on the development of the ocean fund to support long-term ocean management activities and the blue economy,” it explained.
“This legal framework will allow for the Blue Prosperity Plan to be iterative in design and adaptive to economic and ecological change.”
Another official BOPP document called Future Proofing Bermuda’s Ocean — the Data and Process Behind Bermuda’s Marine Spatial Plan, July 2026, which is available on its website, presents data gathered over the years.
It reported that depleted stocks affect other industries outside of fishing including the tourism sector, which it said injected $395 million into Bermuda’s economy in 2023, sustaining 2,583 jobs.
Research by Samia Sarkis, of the Living Reefs Foundation, in 2010 showed that tour operators perceived commercial and recreational overfishing as the biggest threats to coral reefs.
Future Proofing Bermuda’s Ocean said the benefits of action include resilience and recovery from threats such as hurricanes, fish and coral disease, and coral bleaching and fishing pressures, while providing protection to coastal infrastructure, boosting tourism and future-proofing the fishing industry.
The 2018 Bream [Bermuda Reef Ecosystem Assessment and Monitoring] study by Thad Murdoch said that Bermuda’s predatory fish populations have remained low since surveys began compared to the regional index of healthy reefs.
Dr Murdoch, a marine scientist, said in the document: “Their numbers are so depleted that even a small additional impact could push these populations towards extinction.”
The issue of no-catch marine-protected areas has been contentious for the Fishermen’s Association of Bermuda, which maintains more data is needed to justify them.
Speaking to potential funding that could help to fund measures FAB is calling for such as better enforcement, fish stock data and recreational fishing licenses, a FAB spokeswoman told the Gazette: “There is supposed to be funding available once we initiate an MSP, or implement, it’s not clear, nor is it clear these funds will be loans or grants, or go only towards blue businesses, or if they can be used for much needed enforcement or stock analysis research.”
The MSP proposed under the BOPP incorporates no-catch protected areas as well as enforcement, data collection and monitoring, fishing licences, development regulation, pollution management, and education and outreach.
In June, a statement signed by 21 scientific figures said it was essential to move forward with the plan — including the creation of the marine-protected area network — sooner rather than later.
The group warned: “Continued delays risk postponing the benefits this work was designed to deliver and may require more restrictive management measures in the future to achieve the same outcomes.”
The BOPP leaves almost 80 per cent of offshore waters and nearly 90 per cent of nearshore waters open to fishing.
The Government has said it is working to provide responses to questions including how much it is seeking to commit to implement the programme and the volume of private funds expected to be secured on implementation.
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