At the end of the two days of presentations at the First Symposium on Bioluminescence in Puerto Rico, the participants broke up into working groups that offered recommendations for the protection, uses and management of Puerto Mosquito Bioluminescent Bay.

Some of the main recommendations were:

·      To provide the relevant agencies with the human and financial resources to ensure the security and compliance with the laws that have been set up for its protection

·      To implement a number of management actions to reduce the impact on the Bay and its organisms, for example, to improve the roads leading to the bay and to establish a parking area away from the shoreline to avoid sedimentation; to prohibit the use of chemicals such as insect repellant by visitors; to study the carrying capacity of this resource; to license guides.

·      To implement constant monitoring of the physical and biological conditions in the Bay

·      Develop an educational campaign and other creative activities to reduce light pollution

·      To approve the Management Plan and to appropriate the resources to put the plan into action

·      To strongly support the designation of Puerto Mosquito as a UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Reserve (an initiative of the VCHT)

·      To begin an intense educational campaign — including trips to the Bay — directed to the Viequense community to create awareness of the importance of the resource and its fragility, (there are still people who have lived their entire lives in Vieques who have never visited Puerto Mosquito.)