THE LAST HUMPBACK WHALES ARE LEAVING LAS GALERAS
The last Humpback whales of the season are leaving the coast of Cabo Cabrón and of Las Galeras to start their long trip to the far North.
Many people came to admire these wonderful and moving mammals which every year are coming to frolic about in the warm waters off the coasts of Las Galeras and in the Samaná Bay to mate and to give birth. Their games and their acrobatic feats as well as the view of the mother with her whale calf will be remembers which will stay for ever in our memories.
We wish them a safe travel and are looking forward to see them again next year !
April 1st, 2010
LEATHERBACK TURTLES
150 hatchlings of largest sea turtles released by the Dominican Environment Ministry
The Environment Ministry (SEMARENA) announced the birth of at least 150 leatherback turtles in the last few weeks in nests in La Altagracia and Samaná
provinces, which were released in the capital’s Guibia beach.
In Samaná 147 hatchlings were born in two nests, whereas three others were born in the National Aquarium, from eggs recovered to prevent poachers from sacking the nest in the northeast coastal town Nisibón.
The newborns were released at Güibia beach, in the capital, whereas seven nests are still being guarded at Nisibón’s beach.
Personnel of the Coastal and Marine Resources Department and the National Aquarium’s Aquatic Species Rescue and Rehabilitation Center monitor in-situ the leatherback (Coriacea Dermochelys), whose local name is tinglar.
Semarena asked the coastal communities to protect the leatherback, the largest of all sea turtles, also known as laúd, baula or canal, which is on the list of endangered species.
The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is the largest of all living sea turtles and the fourth largest modern reptile behind three crocodilians.
It is listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). This makes it illegal to harm or kill the turtles.
July 2009
Lion Fish studied in the country
Reef Check coordinates a monitoring in the zone
The ecosystem, important vertebra in the column which is nature, is transformed into a environment difficult to maintain and, without this balance, all the rest collapses.
At the time of the month of the Earth, it is important to recall that each element which composes one of these systems is important as much for the planet than the control of the polluting emissions.
The invasion of the Lion Fish on the coasts of the country is controlled since the first scientific information of the presence of a specimen in Montecristi was revealed in the middle of last year.
Lion Fish - Tibisi - Las Galeras
The Reef Check Foundation maintains a constant monitoring of the advances of the species on all the coasts of the country and it is the Dominican spokes entity on the international forums where the cases and the localization of the fish are reported, in addition to examine the possible control methods.
The subject of the invader species as the Lion Fish is examined very seriously within the international scientific community, explains the director of Reef Check, Doctor Rubén Torres, which represents the country to the meeting of ICRI (International Coral Reef Initiative), in Phuket, Thailand, and who says that the invasion of the Lion Fish is one of the most difficult subjects on which they currently work.
The Lion Fish is a big fish which can reach 38 centimeters and weigh up to 1.200 grams.
Its colors are splendid and the Lion Fish is distinguished with red, white and color coffee vertical lines all along its body, although the colors vary according to the place where it lives. He was seen for the first time, in 1992 in the south of Florida, following the passage of the hurricane Andrew, and since then, it was propagated on all the east coast of the United States, until the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles.
The Lion Fish (Pterois volitans) is a marine species coming from the Western Pacific and Oceania.
By its great beauty and behavior, it is very popular among the aquariums, being one of the 10 most invaluable species imported in the United States.
The most probable explanation for the arrival of this fish in the Atlantic Ocean would be through the businesses for aquariums. It is also possible that Lion Fish can be transported through the ballast water of the ships which travel from the Pacific Ocean.
It is a carnivorous species, which feeds with other fish, shellfish and mollusks.
It is very voracious and it threatens the reproduction of other fish.
The Lion Fish is an exotic species (but not of the Caribbean), which territorially competes with other local species like the grouper and which deteriorates the marine ecological balance because of its voracity and given it does not have natural predatory in this zone.
The species is evening and nocturnal and is living on the tropical coasts in the banks of algae, the coral reefs or the coastal lagoons of little depth.
April 2009