Bahamas-Based Enterprise Coral Vita Wins Prestigious Prince William’s £1 million Earthshot Prize

NASSAU, Bahamas, October 19, 2021 – The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation congratulates Grand-Bahama based enterprise Coral Vita on winning the prestigious Prince William’s one-million-pound Earthshot Prize at Alexandra Palace, in London this past Sunday. The Earthshot Prize of £1 million is awarded by the Royal Foundation to five winners each year for their innovative solutions to environmental challenges. Prizes are awarded in five categories: “Protect and Restore Nature,” “Revive Our Oceans,” “Clean Our Air,” “Build a Waste-Free World” and “Fix Our Climate.” Among the first ever five Prize Winners, the Coral Vita team was awarded the £1 million prize in the “Revive Our Oceans” category.

Upon receiving the news of the Earthshot Prize awarded to Coral Vita, Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation Joy Jibrilu stated, “As a country, it gives us immense pride that a scientific initiative based on the island of Grand Bahama has received global recognition for its impact to remedy the effects of global warming on the oceans of the world.”

In 2018, Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern, founders of Coral Vita, built a coral farm in Grand Bahama to fight climate change in The Bahamas. The facility doubles as a marine education center and has gained renown as a tourist attraction. One year after launching this facility, Hurricane Dorian devastated the island of Grand Bahama, which strengthened the company’s resolve to save our coral reefs. Using breakthrough methods, Coral Vita is able to grow coral up to 50 times faster than it grows in nature, while boosting resilience against acidifying and warming oceans. These scientific breakthrough methods made Coral Vita the perfect candidate for the Earthshot Prize.

The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Earthshot Prize was developed in 2021. The goal of the award is to incentivise change and help to repair the planet over the next ten years.

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Each year, for the next ten years, five prizes of one million pounds each will be awarded to environmental enthusiasts, in hope to provide 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems by 2030. Over 750 nominations from all regions of the world were screened for the prestigious global award. There were three finalists in each of the five categories. All fifteen finalists will be supported by The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance, a network of philanthropies, NGOs, and private sector businesses around the world who will help scale their solutions.

For more information on Earthshot visit www.earthshotprize.org

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