This branch of the University of the West Indies is a research center that attracts scientists from all over the world. Facilities include wet and dry labs, a photographic lab, a library and the only decompression chamber in the island.

Most historians now agree that Discovery Bay was not the place where Columbus first set foot on Jamaican soil. He sailed into the harbor in search of fresh water and because he found none named the place Puerto Seco (dry harbor) - a name that persists to this day. He describes in his log proceeding west to the next horseshoe-shaped harbor where he discovered a fine river which he named Rio Bueno. 

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