Abstract

The Blue Planet Foundation proposes an interactive Caribbean Sea Museum that will offer its services in the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. This museum will offer an interactive recreational area for the purpose of raising public awareness of the role that each of its visitors could play in the preservation, recovery, and maintenance of marine resources of the Caribbean Sea. Varying educational programs will be designed to create in the visitors (students, natives, and tourists) an awareness of their interaction with the sea. Locating the museum in Cartagena, declared a world heritage site by the United Nations (1984), is fundamentally important in generating regional changes because of the annual number of national and international tourists that visit the city. Furthermore, Cartagena presents a variety of commercial and recreational marine activities around which educational programs can be developed. The community that benefits from the exploitation of marine resources will, itself, be involved in the educational programs and, as a result, changes its attitude regarding its interactions with the Sea. The Museum will facilitate interaction among governmental entities and the various groups that receive benefits from the use of marine resources. The resulting dialogue will help in the creation of a management plan for the wise use of marine resources from the Caribbean Sea. Educational programs and management plans will be shared with any other entities of the Caribbean region that request them.

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