Estuario Weekly Update
Estuarine greetings! We hope you’ve had an unforgettable holiday with your families, friends and loved ones. A new year is coming, bringing with it new opportunities to continue restoring and protecting the ecosystems and communities of the San Juan Bay Estuary. We greatly appreciate your support during this past 2024, and look forward to continuing collaborating together in 2025. Happy New Year!
We are looking for collaborators for the Water Quality Day of Puerto Rico
The largest citizen science event in Puerto Rico returns!
Since 2009, the Water Quality Day of Puerto Rico has brought together citizen scientists throughout the Island to evaluate water bodies and raise awareness about the importance of conserving our rivers, lakes, lagoons and beaches.
On the way to the next Water Quality Day of Puerto Rico, the SJBEP is recruiting collaborators to facilitate training workshops, deliver materials to participants and conduct monitoring in spaces open to the public. Join as a collaborator! We will have an orientation meeting for collaborators on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.
The seventeenth Water Quality Day of Puerto Rico will take place on Saturday, April 5, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. General registration will open in March 2025.
Thanks to our collaborators
During the 2024 Estuario Summit, held from the 2nd to 4th of December, we collaborated with TAIS, a Puerto Rican environmental action company that works with the recycling of organics and supports local, circular, and regenerative agriculture. TAIS contributed to the waste material diversion services during the event, accumulating 54 pounds of food, 21 pounds of compostables, and 30 pounds of mixed recyclables.
We thank our friends at TAIS for their availability to provide their material diversion services during the 2024 Estuario Summit. Thanks to them, we prevented 105 pounds of materials from reaching our landfills. See more information at: taispr.com.
Gamaliel Pagán Hernández Christmas Bird Counts
On Saturday, December 14, 2024, a new season of the Gamaliel Pagán Hernández Christmas Bird Counts began, with the first census carried out in Old San Juan.
We were joined by volunteers, scientific citizens, and Scouts working for their Bird Study Merit Badge. We thank Coral Avilés and Eliezer Nieves, coordinators of the Christmas Bird Counts.
The Gamaliel Pagán Hernández Christmas Bird Counts, part of the Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count, will continue through Sunday, January 5, 2025. See more information at: estuario.org/eventos. We will soon publish the results of the carried out counts—watch for our weekly update!
Job opportunities
Weekly water quality monitoring
Evaluation carried out on Thursday, December 26, 2024. We have a GREEN flag for the Condado Lagoon. All monitoring stations resulted below the Beach Action Value water quality parameter of 70 CFU/100 ML. Remember to avoid the water during rain events. Happy New Year!
