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local Thursday 18 augusT 2022

Metabolic Foundation presented the Surfside Science project

ORANJESTAD – Tuesday the scope of what they’re
morning, Metabolic Foun- measuring, but are related
dation announced its Surf- to this. When these points
side Science project, which begin to go down, at that
will focus on methods for point it can be investigated
measuring the quality of why they are showing a
air and sea water, chang- negative direction.
es in the coast landscape
and vegetation in the bot- “Right now, the goal of
tom of the ocean. During a this study is to see if these
press conference, Christie methods can be used. We
Mettes, project coordina- are using the area of Surf-
tor, elaborated on the proj- side as a pilot area, and if
ect and its goals. the investigation shows that
the methods work, then we
Mettes explained that hope to expand the proj-
Surfside Science is a proj- ect to monitor all coasts of
ect that received financ- Aruba”, Mettes added.
ing from Resembid, which
is a fund of the European The community can also
Union managed by Exper- contribute with the Surfside
tise France, the collabora- Science project. Mettes
tion agency for French de- commented that they
velopment that manages (DNM), and with the Uni- and they didn’t continue and a lot of them don’t want to make the project
projects in the Overseas versity of Aruba, and in the collecting constantly. What have a monitoring system very open, and there will
Countries and Territories development of this proj- we want to contribute with either. be various information ses-
(OCT), which include Aru- ect, the project was con- is a system that when for sions and also aspects in
ba and 11 other islands in firmed by DNM and Deaci example you go online to Regarding the goal of the which the public can col-
the Caribbean. (Department of Economic find information, this infor- Surfside Science projects, laborate, for example, by
Affairs, Commerce and In- mation can be available”, Mettes commented that taking pictures underwater.
The Surfside Science project dustry) before it was sent to Mettes said. with the study they can
will have duration of one the European Union. prove who is responsible for Finally, in the name of Met-
year, and during that year, She indicated that a lot what. What they can say abolic Foundation, Mettes
Metabolic Foundation will Mettes also said that what of this data is data that is that once they have the extended an invitation to
test different methods that worries the Metabolic Aruba needs to present for data they can see if there the people of Aruba to fol-
can be used to automate Foundation is that around the Sustainable Develop- are changes taking place, low them on Instagram and
data collection on Aruba’s the world, and also in the ment Goals, thus is data or if the quality is bad. A lot be pending for updates on
coasts, both on land and Caribbean, what is hap- that internationally can be of the points measured by the project.
in the ocean itself, close to pening in the coasts can requested and for which the foundation are the ba- “We will try to share infor-
the coast. Mettes indicat- be observed, particularly there is already a purpose sic lines, the simplest things. mation every month on
ed that these methods are with climate change, and and policy. Metabolic They see the water temper- the progress of the project,
more affordable than tra- regrettably in Aruba a lot Foundation will not work on ature, acidity (pH) of the how it’s going and what
ditional method, and the of the data which could the policy. water, water conductivity, kind of data we collected
foundation tries to make show these changes is not salinity and the amount of already, if it was validated
them more replicable in or- there. She commented Mettes added that in gen- oxygen that exists in the or not. Any person who
der that they can also be that right now the reason eral there are changes in water. wants to participate or
used by people who are given for this lack of data is the Caribbean, but there is has feedback, we are very
not scientists themselves. that there is no money to fi- still a lot of information lack- The problems of pollution open to receiving the feed-
nance the data collection, ing, on other islands as well, or waste are outside of back”, she said.
To guarantee that the or sometimes not enough
methods are trustworthy, capacity to constantly col-
throughout the year the lect the data.
foundation will be working
together with marine ecol- With this in mind, Metabol-
ogist and environmental ic Foundation is trying to
engineer Tatiana Becker, come up with solutions that
who will compare the re- automate the collection of
sults that Metabolic Foun- data necessary to observe
dation measures with the the changes that are go-
results that she will measure ing on. When Aruba wants
using standard methods to implement a solution, if
generally used in science. there has been monitoring,
With this, the foundation it is possible to see if the so-
hopes to prove that their lution is working or not.
methods can be applied
on more beaches around “A lot of data collection
Aruba. at this moment is not au-
tomated and it’s not con-
Mettes explained that the stant. We took note of a re-
foundation is in close con- port by Carmabi which for
tact with the Department sure was very valuable for
of Nature and Environment Aruba, but it is a snapshot