The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $103 million in support of costal restoration projects in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.

Grants were awarded through NFWF’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, which received more than $2.5 billion over five years under the plea agreements between the U.S. Department of Justice and BP and Transocean, from remedial orders that resolved certain criminal charges relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As required under the agreements, projects were developed in consultation with state resource agencies as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). To date, the fund has awarded nearly $1.6 billion in support of projects across the five Gulf Coast states.

The program’s ninth round of awards includes more than $43 million for four new projects in Alabama, three of which are dedicated to the construction of coastal habitat restoration projects to stabilize eroding shorelines and restore coastal marsh in Mobile County and on the north side of Dauphin Island; and nearly $33 million for a new project in Florida aimed at acquiring and managing approximately 32,000 acres of wetland and floodplain habitat in the Apalachicola watershed. In addition, grants totaling nearly $27 million were awarded in support of six new projects and two amendments to ongoing projects in Mississippi to expand and plan for future enhancements of artificial reefs across the Mississippi Sound and restore and protect vulnerable coastal habitats along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

“The awards announced today strengthen GEBF’s efforts to restore coastal habitats and protect biodiversity in the Gulf,” said NFWF executive director and CEO Jeff Trandahl. “These projects, combined with existing investments, continue to advance our goal of protecting and restoring species and habitats impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.”