Estuario Weekly Update
Greetings! Below, we share the events, initiatives, and training and collaboration opportunities programmed in benefit of the waters, ecosystems and communities connected to the San Juan Bay Estuary (SJBE).
Support the San Juan Bay Estuary Partnership with your Refund
This new filing season, we urge you to donate your refund to the actions to eliminate sanitary discharges to bodies of water loved by all, such as the Condado Lagoon and beaches. You will also support the restoration of the San Juan Bay, the canals that connect the lagoons of the San Juan metropolitan region, and management projects for this important ecosystem.
Look for the option “Contribution to the San Juan Bay Estuary Special Fund,” located in line 1B of the “Refund” box of your form.
This method is possible thanks to Act 48 of 2009, which establishes the Special Fund for the San Juan Bay Estuary.
Learn about the different methods available to donate to the San Juan Bay Estuary Partnership (SJBEP) in estuario.org/donar/.
Family Day at the Condado Lagoon Natural Estuarine Reserve
Don’t miss the next Estuario Family Day, at the Jaime Benítez Park of the Condado Lagoon Natural Estuarine Reserve, on Saturday, March 1, 2025. We will have several activities to accumulate community service hours or Contacto Verde, including a cleanup at the Reserve and a talk about the wildlife of the Estuary watershed, followed by a trivia. Afterwards we will have Cine del Estuario. See more information at: estuario.org/eventos. See you there!
Cine del Estuario presents: Wicked
Cine del Estuario presents: Wicked; on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. in the Jaime Benítez Park of the Condado Lagoon Natural Estuarine Reserve. The film will be screened in Spanish, with English subtitles. This feature is free of charge. Bring your blanket or chair!
Estuario 5K at Jardín Botánico
The first Estuario 5K will be on March 23, 2025, at 7:00 a.m. at Jardín Botánico de Río Piedras, San Juan! You will walk along trails, appreciating streams and lakes, and listening to the song of birds under the shade of native and centenary trees.
Registration includes a commemorative shirt, medal at the end of the 5K, runner number, chip to record the duration of your race, hydration, access to educational tables at the end of the race.
For an additional cost, you can get the opportunity to enter the raffle for the VIP Concert Experience of Bad Bunny’s No me quiero ir de aquí.
The Estuario 5K is carried out with the endorsement and close collaboration of Jardín Botánico de la Universidad de Puerto Rico.
Water Quality Day of Puerto Rico
The seventeenth Water Quality Day of Puerto Rico will be on Saturday, April 5, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Registration for the event opens soon. Mark your calendar!
We are still recruiting collaborators to help with tasks of providing training workshops, distributing kits and establishing water quality monitoring points open to the public. If you would like to participate as a Water Quality Day collaborator, see more information here.
SJBEP joins the Recycling Pop-Up in Loíza
The SJBEP was present with its educational table at the most recent Recycling Pop-Up in Loíza, with LimPiaR and the Municipality of Loíza, on Saturday, February 15, 2025.
Through our educational table, we made visible the collaborative campaign with LimPiaR: Deja una huella limpia en Piñones, as well as the vegetable oil diversion program and the impacts of plastics and microplastics on our ecosystems.
The Recycling Pop-Up in Loíza takes place every month, on the third Saturday of each month. See more information, here.
Planting in Río Guajataca, Quebradillas
On Saturday, February 15, citizen scientists trained by the SJBEP participated in the planting of red mangroves at Río Guajataca in Quebradillas, in collaboration with Surfrider Foundation.
Our goal is to provide our citizen scientists with the field experience they need to continue restoration efforts to the shorelines of the San Juan Bay Estuary system.
We thank all the citizen scientists who accompanied the coordinators of Coastal Resilience of the Estuary, Andreína Alexatos and Agnes Pagán, and the Surfrider Foundation for the opportunity to collaborate.
Certification for Citizen Scientists
Below are the events scheduled for the coming weeks. See more information at: estuario.org/ccc.
Participatory Bird Census Module
Participatory Bird Census workshop; Thursday, March 6, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. via Zoom
Field experience; on Sunday, March 9, from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. in Parque Central de San Juan
Register today, at: estuario.org/ccc.
Weekly water quality monitoring
Evaluation carried out on Thursday, February 20, 2025. We have a GREEN flag for the Condado Lagoon. We recommend avoiding the area that exceeded the Beach Action Value water quality parameter of 70 CFU/100 ML. Remember to avoid the water during rain events.
