Samaná Bay is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

in the eastern

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. The

Yuna River The Yuna River (Spanish: ''Río Yuna'') is the second longest river in the Dominican Republic, stretching for a length of 185.17 km (115.06 miles). It forms within the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic, Cordillera Central mountain range south ...

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 beach ...

Wildlife

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

Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...

pictographs and petroglyphs, and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

-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 monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

; the breeding season attracts many whale-watchers.

Geography

Samaná Bay lies along the boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. 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 ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

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 a ...

, 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 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. A northern Democratic Party (United States), Democrat who believed that the Abolitionism in the United States, abolitio ...

administration instructed a special agent to negotiate a treaty permitting the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

US Secretary of State The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

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 opp ...

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 Ulysses S. Grant's tenure as the 18th president of the United States began on March 4, 1869, and ended on March 4, 1877. Grant, a Republican Party (US), Republican, took office after winning the 1868 United States presidential election, 1868 e ...

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