Highlights for the week ending February 27th

CREARTE joins Estuary Guardians: Our Education Program started a collaboration with CREARTE to develop education activities within and outside the classroom to educate students and teacher regarding water quality and topics related to The San Juan Bay Estuary. Through Guardianes, CREARTE has adopted the Juan Mendez creek as the body of water that they will monitor. 

CREARTE students walk over the Juan Méndez creek, which they have pledged to defend as Guardians of the Estuary.

First activity with the Guardians of the Estuary in Piñones:

On february 24th the AmeriCorps VISTA group of volunteers, prepared the first Guardians of the Estuary activity from the Emiliano Figueroa Elementary School in Piñones. The activity in this school is part of the VISTA's ongoing efforts towards creating environment-based economic opportunities in the community of Piñones.

Workshop on Principles of Ethics for Research Involving Human Subjects and CIPSHI Procedures: On february 24th, our AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer and historian Laura Horta went to the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus for a  training in research involving human subjects. This initiative is part of the interest in developing the skills of our volunteers and the importance in the San Juan Estuary Program to learn more about strategies for social research.

Water Quality Monitoring Program with Volunteers

For the week of February 23-25 the San Juan Bay Water Quality Monitoring Program with Volunteers (WQMPV) went to the field to visit 24 monitoring stations around the San Juan Bay estuary Watershed. A total of 14 volunteers joined the WQMPV coordinator and collect data of eight water quality parameters during the 4 day monitoring period. As part of a special biannual event, we collected water samples to be analyzed by a certified laboratory for the following parameters: Oil & grease, nutrients, fecal bacteria, BOD, Turbidity and chlorophyll.

Educational and environmental field trip by the Condado Lagoon: On February 27th our Education Manager, Javier Cardona, and our Coordinator of Water Quality Volunteer Monitoring Program, Harold Manrique, guided a group of students of the EcoExploratorio Museum of Science through the Condado Lagoon. The group of fifty students, learned more about the San Juan Estuary Program, the flora and fauna of the lagoon and the importance of environmental volunteer work. Also, the students had the opportunity to do water monitoring exercises.