Samaná Bay is a bay in the eastern

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 wit ...

. The

Yuna River The Yuna River (Spanish: ''Río Yuna'') is the second longest river in the Dominican Republic at in length. It forms within the Cordillera Central mountain range southwest of the city of Bonao in Monseñor Nouel Province, and passes through the ...

flows into Samaná Bay, and it is located south of the town of Samaná and the

Samaná Peninsula The Samaná Península is a peninsula in Dominican Republic situated in the province of Samaná. The Samaná Peninsula is connected to the rest of the state by the isthmus of Samaná; to its south is Samaná Bay. The peninsula contains many beache ...

Wildlife

Among its features are protected islands that serve as nesting sites for pelicans and frigatebirds, caves with

Taíno The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...

pictographs and petroglyphs, and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

-lined river tributaries. It is a significant breeding site for the

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...

in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

; the breeding season attracts many whale-watchers.

Geography

Samaná Bay lies along the boundary between the

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific ...

and the

Caribbean plate The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South America. Roughly 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders ...

. Two named fault lines run the length of Samaná Bay. These fault lines form the western terminal of the nineteen-degree fault, that runs north of Puerto Rico and most of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

to form the northern boundary of the Caribbean plate. As such, the area is prone to earthquakes. File:Carr. al Hotel Antiguo Cayacoa, Samaná 32000, Dominican Republic - panoramio.jpg File:Samana-Laslovarga (113).jpg File:Samana-Laslovarga (141).jpg File:Samana-Laslovarga (6).jpg File:Samana-Laslovarga (76).jpg

Landmarks

Adjoining the bay is

Los Haitises National Park Los Haitises National Park is a national park located on the remote northeast coast of the Dominican Republic that was established in 1976. It consists of a limestone karst plateau with conical hills, sinkholes and caverns, and there is a large ar ...

, which is popular with national and international ecotourist visitors. Samaná Bay also has 4-star hotels. Contained within Samana Bay is the island of

Cayo Levantado Cayo Levantado, is an island in Samaná Bay, located in the Samaná Province in the eastern region of Dominican Republic. It is a well-known tourist destination in the country. The nearest airport, the Samaná El Catey International Airport is 68 ...

also known as Bacardi Island.

History

The

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

administration instructed a special agent to negotiate a treaty permitting the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to establish a naval base in Samaná Bay, resulting in an agreement in October 1854. However, British and French envoys (who opposed US military presence in the area) convinced the Dominican government to insert a stipulation that Dominican citizens be treated as white people in the

, ending the chances of the treaty being ratified. Again, in the aftermath of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, US Secretary of State

William H. Seward William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. A determined oppon ...

formed a plan to purchase or lease Samaná Bay for the United States, which was then seeking bases for its navy in the Caribbean. However, the plan failed - partly due to hostility between Congress and President Johnson. making Congress reluctant to allocate funds for the purpose. Later efforts by the

Grant Administration The presidency of Ulysses S. Grant began on March 4, 1869, when Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated as the 18th president of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1877. The Reconstruction era took place during Grant's two terms of office. The Ku ...

to purchase the bay, which soon expanded to annex all of the Dominican Republic also failed in the U.S. Senate.

References

Geography of Samaná Province Bays of the Dominican Republic {{DominicanRepublic-geo-stub