GFDD and FUNGLODE Mark 25th Anniversary of Marine Mammals Sanctuary of the Dominican Republic at DREFF.

Santo Domingo, 9/9/2011

On Saturday, September 10, 2011 guests to the first Dominican Republic Environment Film Festival (DREFF), will unite with a number of leading national and international experts in the area of marine mammal conservation to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the Marine Mammals Sanctuary of the Dominican Republic.  This special celebratory event, is organized in partnership with GFDD and FUNGLODE and will be held at FUNGLODE’s headquarters in Santo Domingo, preceded at 6pm, in commemoration of the event, by the screening of the documentary film Ocean Voyageurs. The film documents a whale mother and her calf through its first years, and much of the footage presented was captured at the Marine Mammal Sanctuary off the coast of Samaná.

Invited guest speakers include the world’s most renowned oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, Minister of the Environment in the Dominican Republic, Don Ernesto Reyna and Dra. Idelisa Bonnelly de Calventi, President of the Dominican Foundation for Marine Research (FUNDEMAR).

Guests will address the wealth of species that makes the Dominican Republic one of the richest countries in the world in terms of biological diversity and the importance of marine mammals in this ecosystem. Discussion will be centered around the importance of creating marine protected areas, as well as legislation to protect marine mammals.

The role of the Dominican Republic as a world leader in the conservation of marine mammals is well established. In October 1986, the La Plata Bank National Marine Sanctuary (aka“Silver Bank Sanctuary), was created and in 1996, it was enlarged & renamed “The Sanctuary for the Marine Mammals of the Dominican Republic”. The country has long been a forerunner in the Caribbean basin for establishing and providing marine oriented protection, guidelines, regulations and educational workshops for the preservation of its inland and coastal ecosystems. This sanctuary was the first of its kind to respond exclusively to the conservation interests of the Dominican Republic.

La Plata Bank National Marine Sanctuary later influenced the creation of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in the USA, which has registered some 1,600 humpback whales, of the more than 10,000 that migrate to the  areas of Banco de Plata, Navidad and Samaná Bay each year. The whales travel between the rich feeding grounds of Stellwagen Bank before heading south to the warmer waters of the Dominican Republic to give birth to their calves between December and April. At this time, the area hosts the largest concentration of whales in the world.

The creation of this sanctuary was made possible through the hard work of many organizations and institutions from both the DR, including FUNDEMAR, CIBIMAR and CEBSE. The DR Environmental Film Festival, congratulates those responsible and invites you to join us in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Marine Mammal Sanctuary.