Saona Island () is a tropical island located off off the south-east coast in

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 ...

La Altagracia province La Altagracia () is a province located in the eastern part of the Dominican Republic. It is the only region that borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is divided into two municipalities and its capital is the beach city of Punta Can ...

. It is a government-protected nature reserve and is part of

Cotubanamá National Park Cotubanamá National Park (formerly ) is located on the lower southeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, spanning across the provinces of La Altagracia and La Romana with an area of which includes a range of dense humid and dry subtropical ...

. There are two permanent settlements, the town of Mano Juan and the naval base at Catuano. The island is a popular tourist destination in the Dominican Republic.

Etymology

Granberry and Vescelius (2004) suggest a Macoris etymology for the name ''Saona'', comparing it with ''sa-ona'' 'full of bats' in the purportedly related

Warao language Warao (also known as Guarauno, Guarao, Warrau) is the native language of the Warao people. A language isolate, it is spoken by about 33,000 people primarily in northern Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname. It is notable for its unusual object–subject ...

of the

Orinoco Delta The Orinoco Delta is a vast river delta of the Orinoco River, located in eastern Venezuela. Location The Orinoco Delta is one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela. It covers the whole of Delta Amacuro State and a few square kilometers o ...

. However, it is widely accepted that

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

named it after the Italian city of

Savona Savona (; ) is a seaport and (municipality) in the west part of the northern Italian region of Liguria, and the capital of the Province of Savona. Facing the Ligurian Sea, Savona is the main center of the Riviera di Ponente (the western se ...

History

Saona has

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

pictograph A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...

s and

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s found at Cueva de Cotubanamá. The island was known as "Adamanay" by the indigenous Taino. The island was baptized "Saona" by

, who landed on it in May 1494 during his second voyage to the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. Columbus named Michele da Cuneo the first governor of the island. The name was meant "... to honor Michele da Cuneo, olumbus'friend from Savona." By 1500, the Tainos on the island provided

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

with most of its

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

. The island is the site of a series of

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

s dating back to the early Spanish control of the island. At least three vessels wrecked on the island due to storm, or

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

. Saona did not have permanent inhabitants until 1944, when the first buildings were constructed on the island. Since then a village was established at Mano Juan which has homes for the local fishermen along with

boutique hotel Boutique hotels are small-capacity Hotel, hotels that provide more personalized service than typical hotels. They typically have fewer than a hundred rooms, and are considered more "trendy" and "intimate", often due to their location in urban ar ...

Geography

Saona Island is located off the coast of peninsula that comprises the mainland section of the

. The island itself is and is surrounded by the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

, with

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or ...

s, and a number of

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

ecosystems with a wide marine diversity. The island itself is covered in white sand. The northern coast of the island is more rugged, while the southern and western coasts hold the best open beaches on the island. The island has multiple lagoons including the larger Secucho lagoon located inland and the Canto de la Playa and Las Flamencos lagoons on the southern part of the island.

Flora and fauna

Of the 539 registered species of endemic flora within the Cotubanamá National Park, most of them are found in the diversity of ecosystems on Saona including wild bushes 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 ...

s, semi-humid and salted forests. Four species of

neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

mangrove are present along the Catuano Channel - red, white, black, and button mangle. The island also has large

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

forests and lowland

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

. 112 species of birds are found on the island, including

brown pelican The brown pelican (''Pelecanus occidentalis'') is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mouth ...

magnificent frigatebird The magnificent frigatebird (''Fregata magnificens''), frigate petrel or man o' war is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae. With a length of and wingspan of , it is the largest species of frigatebird. It occurs over tropical and subtr ...

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes () are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbe ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

s, endemic Hispaniolan parrots, and

red-footed boobies The red-footed booby (''Sula sula'') is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. Adults always have red feet, but the colour of the plumage varies. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. They are ...

. Saona is the Dominican Republic's most important site for sea turtle nesting. The site is threatened by

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and coastal flooding. In the surrounding Caribbean Sea, 40 species of fish, 10 coral, and 124

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

s can be found, with other marine life including

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exte ...

loggerhead sea turtle The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of sea turtle, oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the Family (biology), family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around ...

manatee Manatees (, family (biology), family Trichechidae, genus ''Trichechus'') are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivory, herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing t ...

bottlenose dolphin The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

rhinoceros iguana The rhinoceros iguana (''Cyclura cornuta'') is an endangered species of iguana that is endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and its surrounding islands. A large lizard, they vary in length from ...

s, and octopuses.

Municipalities

There are two permanent settlements, the towns of Mano Juan and Catuano. Mano Juan is the only inhabited village on the island. Catuano is the site of a naval base. The island is powered entirely by renewable energy produced by a

solar power plant A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

that provides electricity to the 600 residents of the island.

Economy

Saona Island is one of the key

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...

locations in the Dominican Republic with over 1 million visitors per year. It is the most visited protected area in the Dominican Republic, capturing 45% of the visits to protected areas in 2019. A secondary economy is based around film production. Films such as '' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'' (2003) and '' The Blue Lagoon'' have been filmed in part on Saona Island.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Islands of the Dominican Republic Geography of La Altagracia Province Protected areas of the Dominican Republic Tourist attractions in La Altagracia Province