Alto Velo Island ( es, Isla Alto Velo; also called Alta Vela Island) is a small uninhabited island south of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. Its maximum height is about above sea level. It lies on an underwater mountain range which continues to Beata Island (about away, separated by the Alto Velo Channel) and the southwestern coast of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

. It has an area of and is long, being oval in shape.

Location

It is located about southwest of

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

, and south of Pedernales, making it the southernmost point of the Dominican Republic, a distinction sometimes claimed by Beata Island.

Government

The island is part of the province of Pedernales in the

Conservation

Alto Velo and Beata Islands belong to the

Jaragua National Park Jaragua National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Jaragua) is a national park of the Dominican Republic. Jaragua National Park is located in the Pedernales Province in the extreme southwest of the Dominican Republic. Jaragua National Park has a total ar ...

, the largest protected area in the Caribbean region.

History

The island was visited by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1494; his crew caught and killed seabirds and eight Caribbean monk seals on the island, which he named because from a distance it looked like a tall ship at sail. In 1863, the Confederate

commerce raider Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than enga ...

CSS ''Alabama'' captured and burned at sea the Boston-based schooner ''Chatelaine'' off the coast of Alto Velo Island. In the 1860s, at least three U.S.-based companies claimed the island under the

Guano Islands Act The Guano Islands Act (, enacted August 18, 1856, codified at §§ 1411-1419) is a United States federal law passed by the U.S. Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession, in the name of the United States, of unclai ...

; however, the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...

determined that the island, despite lying in an area then-disputed between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, likely belonged to the Dominican Republic (due to historical Spanish claims, geography, and other factors) and therefore could not be claimed under the act. A 1932 U.S. Department of State report on the status of Guano Island Act claims included Alto Velo among the islands "to which the United States has no claim." Dominican officials authorized foreign concessionaires to mine guano from the island until the early 20th century, when synthetic fertilizers became common. A 1950 botanical expedition to Alto Velo noted that "the scars of the mining operations on the leeward slopes of the island" remained visible and that "artifacts of mining still litter portions of the hill."

Location

Government

Conservation

History

See also

References

Further reading