SCHAD Expertise, Frederic Schad Inc., our correspondents on the Dominican Republic, has provided us with the following information. Please find complete circular below.

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During the past 18 months we have had to deal with a number of cases of environmental damages allegedly caused by vessels entering into, anchoring or grounding within the off shore areas designated under Dominican law as National Parks, Nature reserves and/or Protect Areas. 

The areas in question are not marked as such on navigational charts,  nor is there any notification to mariners regarding the prohibition of access and navigation in these areas. Dominican law, however does not accept ignorance as an excuse for contravention of the law, voluntarily or involuntarily, although in exceptional cases it may be considered as an extenuating circumstance. 

We have made contact with the Cartographic Division of the Dominican Navy (Marina de Guerra) and are currently pursuing a formal request to have them notify officially the international  authorities,  so that appropriate notices can appear on navigational charts and in notifications to mariners in the future, and in the meantime, for your information and guidance we have translated hereunder relevant sections of Dominican Law no. 202-04 of  30 July 2004. The full text of this law (in Spanish) may be found at the Internet web page of the DR Judicial Authority  the url is: https://www.suprema.gov.do/pdf/leyes/2004/Ley_202-04.pdf 

We have translated only the descriptions of 2 of the many off-shore national parks as those have been the most recently involved,

(1) the Silver Bank off the north (Atlantic) coast of the Dominican Republic between the Turks & Caicos Islands, and the Bahamas, which is a marine mammal sanctuary famous as the mating grounds of the humpbacked whales,  and

(2) the La Caleta Submarine Park which is on the south (Caribbean) coast about 20km east of the city of Santo Domingo close to the Dominican ports of  Caucedo and Boca Chica.

La Caleta is situated in a sheltered bay and may be mistaken for a perfect anchorage as  anchorage outside Caucedo port is prohibited and the port is often congested.

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