We welcome you to the inaugural edition of the ISER Caribe Newsletter. As spring brings new life and warmth, it is an ideal time to reaffirm our dedication to environmental stewardship in the Caribbean.
Our planet faces unprecedented challenges, but within every challenge there is an opportunity for positive transformation. Through collective action and informed decision-making, we are forging a path toward a more sustainable future.
In this first newsletter, we highlight our inspiring ocean restoration initiatives, innovative strategies to combat climate change, the creation of the Climate Justice Hub, our support of the Bicentennial celebrations in Samaná, Dominican Republic, and a community note on our recent efforts related to sargassum in Puerto Rico and the Greater Caribbean. We hope that the content we share inspires you to seek solutions to make changes in your communities.
Support Us
This year, our fundraising efforts are focused on acquiring our offices in Cabo Rojo, helping to sustain our work in the long term. The space will be transformed into the Climate Justice Hub, serving the communities of southwest Puerto Rico. The Hub will provide services to the most vulnerable communities in the southwest and will be used as a connection point between ISER Caribe and other community organizations on and off the island, committed to community-centered research and action.
Thank you for being an integral part of our community. Together, our actions can truly make a difference. Let us amplify our voices and catalyze moving towards a healthier and more resilient Earth together.
With gratitude,
The ISER Caribe team
Ocean Conservation and Restoration
This spring we outplanted over 20,000 coral microfragments and released over 1,000 sea urchins on two reefs in La Parguera and Fajardo as part of our goal of restoring 5 acres of coral reefs over the next four years! The joint restoration of corals and sea urchins is essential to keep coral reef ecosystems in balance. Sea urchins eat algae from the reef substrate, which reduces competition for space and allows wild and transplanted corals to grow faster.
As part of these restoration efforts, we took an important step toward restoring threatened and endangered coral species as many of the coral microfragments we outplanted are threatened or endangered species. This included the threatened pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus, which is estimated to go on the endangered species list in August 2024. Pillar corals are nearly extinct in Florida and at ISER Caribe we have made it a priority to house, cultivate and protect this species.
Meanwhile, we continue work at our terrestrial nurseries raising herbivores and corals! We have begun collecting the long-spined sea urchin, Diadema antillarum. During the summer season we collect Diadema settlers (babies) from the ocean and raise them in laboratory conditions before releasing them onto the reef. This greatly increases the chances that the sea urchin settlers will survive to adulthood and fulfill their role as important herbivores. We are also growing two different types of sea urchins and the herbivorous Caribbean king crab in the lab, which will also be released onto the reefs to restore ecosystem balance.
We have also begun an exciting new endeavor sexually reproducing corals! Our team went out for the first time in early May to collect coral gametes to fertilize and raise corals from these efforts in the lab. Corals that reproduce sexually will allow us to produce coral genotypes that could be more resistant to future bleaching and disease. Meanwhile, we continue our efforts to reproduce corals asexually using the microfragmentation technique.
We hope to plant more corals and herbivores during the fall/winter to continue toward our ecosystem-based restoration goal of 5 acres of coral reefs.
ISER Caribe expands efforts to address the sargassum crisis
“Last April, I enjoyed immersing myself in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean that were still fresh and transparent. However, I couldn't help but think about the large and numerous floating sargassum “islands” that are approaching. There was only some sargassum on the beach like it used to be before 2011, the year when the panorama changed for the inhabitants of the Caribbean basin. Anomalies in the wind pattern caused by climate changes, together with the excessive input of nutrients from the Amazon and Congo rivers, caused the creation of a new sargassum growth zone in the Equatorial Atlantic between Brazil and África. Since then, large quantities of this floating seaweed arrive on the Caribbean coasts annually, usually during March to October.
Sargassum in the open ocean forms a floating ecosystem in the open sea that serves as shelter and food for many organisms, including mahi mahi and sea turtles, however decomposition of sargassum on our coasts deteriorates the health of our coastal ecosystems and of the human beings who live there. This year sargassum is expected to arrive again and it is predicted that during the month of May it will increase for this area of the Caribbean.”
Dr. Mariana C. León Pérez
With a view to providing solutions to this situation, in August 2023, Dr. Mariana C. León Pérez, who has a PhD from Texas A&M University focused on the research and management of sargassum, joined the ISER Caribe team. She is strengthening links with the communities and entities that manage the issue, while writing proposals to request funds to focus on addressing the needs of the most affected communities. If you are interested in this topic and want to learn more about our efforts related to sargassum, stay connected through our newsletters, our website, and the ISER Caribe social media. For updated information on the arrival of sargassum visit: https://www.caricoos.org/sargassum and https://optics.marine.usf.edu/projects/saws.html.
We Choose Freedom: Commemorating the Bicentennial of Black American Immigration to Haiti/Hispaniola
Following the integration of Spanish Haiti and the Republic of Haiti into one nation in 1822, invitations were extended in 1824 to freed African American communities in the United States to help build the first Black republic in the Americas. Between 1824-1826, upwards of 13,000 African Americans emigrated from the United States to Haiti, which then governed the whole island of Hispaniola. 2024 will mark the 200-year anniversary of the little-known history of African American migrations to Haiti/Hispaniola.
As part of ISER Caribe’s commitment to supporting the needs of the communities we work alongside, we will be helping to support the various events that are part of this commemoration. If you are interested in additional information or wish to support the celebration, please contact our Director of Public Programs at ryanamhamilton@gmail.com.
ISER co-founder Dr. Ryan Mann-Hamilton led the creation of a digital database on JSTOR of historical documents pertaining to the birth, baptism, and marriage of community members, developed in collaboration with the Dominican Studies Archive at CUNY. These documents highlight the connection of the population of Samaná to other Caribbean islands and the constant maritime exchanges that are part of its history. Freedom from slavery was an organizing ethos of nineteenth-century politics in the Circum-Caribbean.
The “We Choose Freedom: Samaná, Dominican Republic” digital archive is an open-access repository of nineteenth and twentieth-century documents. The initial creation of the archive was funded by the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials, The CUNY Dominican Studies Library and Archives, and the Institute for Socio-Ecological Research (ISER Caribe). With this support, in 2019, a small team, including Dr. Ryan Mann-Hamilton, Librarian Jhensen Ortiz, and Sophia Monegro, traveled to the St. Peter’s Evangelical and the AME Mother Bethel churches in Samaná to preserve over 500 documents, ranging from Birth Records to Marriage Certificates from the 1870s to 1970.
These delicate archives and the important stories they hold about African descendant people’s unwavering freedom struggles are at increased risk of being forever lost in this climate-vulnerable region. This archival digital practice ensures the retention of this history, making never-before-seen primary sources available for scholars to continue writing the little-known history of African American immigration to Samaná and across the island.
Bicentennial of Freedom Events:
Celebration of the Anniversary of the San Pedro Evangelical Church in Samaná
Date: July 14 to 21, 2024
Philadelphia Puerto Rican Workshop/AME Church
Date: September 15, 2024
Harvest Festival Celebration at St. Peter's Church
Date: October 27, 2024
UT Austin We Choose Freedom Symposium
Date: November 13, 2024
El Jardín Secreto
Our co-founder, Dr. Braulio Quintero participated in the fourth episode: El Jardín Secreto, of the documentary series El Taller de La Playa de Ponce: Las artes como vía del conocimiento y aprendizaje de vida, produced by the Taller de la Playa de Ponce and directed by the renowned Puerto Rican artist Antonio Martorell. The documentary series focuses on various social, historical, cultural and environmental aspects of La Playa de Ponce. In this episode Braulio talks about the environmental abuse of the coastal area of La Playa de Ponce and its impact on the residents of La Playa. We invite you to watch this 4th episode and the rest of the series to learn more about the La Playa de Ponce sector.
Climate Justice Hub
ISER Caribe continues to expand its reach and seek additional collaborations with various communities in southwestern Puerto Rico. As part of that process, we intend to purchase and transform our office space in Cabo Rojo into a Climate Justice Hub.
The Hub will serve as a central location to coordinate research, education, and outreach activities that address environmental and climate change injustices, with a focus on building collaborations. It will become an open, enriching and generative space that supports decentralized organization and guarantees the sustainability of grassroots movements. We hope visitors find something that captures their attention and motivates them to reflect on their own work, their lives, and how they might contribute to a collective vision of climate justice.
The Climate Justice Hub will focus on the following areas:
A community Food, Energy and Water science co-lab.
A community library that will support reading activities in social and natural sciences and education.
An inclusive event space for community-led activities.
An interactive weather station.