The environmental nonprofit ISER Caribe proposes to create the Interactive Center for Environmental, Marine and Coastal Education in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, according to its executive director, environmental scientist Braulio A. Quintero Nazario. The center would expand the science education and community work the group already does with secondary students, which it cannot yet do with elementary-age pupils.
ISER operates two nurseries, in Lajas and Ceiba, where it cannot take elementary students for safety reasons. One is on Magueyes Island, site of the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez marine sciences research station, which children aged 10 or younger cannot visit. In Ceiba it works on the former Roosevelt Roads naval base with the Roosevelt Roads Local Redevelopment Authority.
The center would convert a storage space the group already holds in Cabo Rojo’s town center. It would offer a sequential experience from the mountains to the sea, showing how erosion, fires and agricultural pesticide use travel through watersheds and rivers to mangroves, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. The proposal is ready and has been discussed with allies; ISER is now fundraising.
It seeks $25,000 to qualify for a matching grant that would bring total investment to $50,000. Donations can be made on ISER Caribe’s website or through the ATH Móvil app under the entity "ISER." ISER leads Puerto Rico’s largest coral restoration project, the Caribbean Reef Project, and was first in Puerto Rico to achieve sexual reproduction of elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) through in vitro fertilization.