marine management opportunities

Elizabeth80

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Jun 13, 2007
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Hi there
So this is my first time trying this site.....

I am a soon to be graduate with a master of marine management and I am interested in what the Dominican Republic has to offer in terms of employment in this field. Does anyone know where I can find information on marine policy, research or project opportunities in the Dominican Republic?

Any information would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance
 

Capt. Rob57

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Mar 22, 2006
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What I was trying to say is at what depths are the reefs. Many are to deep to dive safely. For example as soon as you leave the mouth of Rio Haina you already in 300' of water. Look at Goggle Earth and you will see that the Carib sea on the south shore is nothing but a desert. Yes, there are reefs but, not like Cuba, Rotan, Bahamas even the Keys in Fla. Some of you just do not like people with different opinions other than yours.
 
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Capt. Rob57

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Mar 22, 2006
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Visited the Punta Cana web site today and was not impressed. Seems to me like they are catering to the rich. There are many laws on the books to protect the Marine environment but, not enforced. For example: the taking of lobster out of season and egg bearing females. The fisherman's response well we have to eat. When they kill everything that swims what are they going to do next ? They don't even let the fish grow up. Most of the grouper are imported and have been for years. Out of Monzinallo the boats go to the Bahamas to fish because there is nothing here.
 

Narcosis

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Dec 18, 2003
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What I was trying to say is at what depths are the reefs. Many are to deep to dive safely. For example as soon as you leave the mouth of Rio Haina you already in 300' of water. Look at Goggle Earth and you will see that the Carib sea on the south shore is nothing but a desert. Yes, there are reefs but, not like Cuba, Rotan, Bahamas even the Keys in Fla. Some of you just do not like people with different opinions other than yours.

First of all what does this have to do with the OP?

Second you are wrong again, google earth does not indicate reefs, those turquiose waters are actually the "DESERTS" you mention, because they are sand flats, water that in most cases is less the 10 feet deep, thus why they come up those colors from space from the reflection of the sand.

A novice diver can safely dive to 100 feet, and most of the island is surrounded by reefs from 40 to 100 feet.

As far as the Punta Cana Foundation not impressing you? Of course not you seem to know it all.
 

zoomzx11

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Jan 21, 2006
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There is no

Hello Elizabeth and others. Sorry to say there is no management of the marine environment. The DR is a volcanic island and the existing coral is shallow with a steep drop to the ocean. The coral is seriously hunted to death by Dominican locals using hookah rigs. They dive deep and are often bent. Another replaces them and they kill most everything that swims and is edible. The people here are under employed and they must do what is necessary to make a living. As far as any long term management, forget it. There is a hard time managing the land resources never mind the ocean. Best of luck but look elsewhere.
 

Capt. Rob57

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Mar 22, 2006
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I stopped diving years ago here nothing to shoot. The reefs have been decimated by local fisherman. If you want to look at pretty colors than great. It is the same off Puerto Rico nothing to shoot. You can defend this all you want. The bottom line is if nothing is done to protect the fisheries which has already collapsed it will never come back. It was the same way if Fla. until they put in strict laws and enforced them .In five short years the sardines came back along with them the Kingfish also. They stopped the gill netters through a buy back program and the mullet came back also. Now fish everywhere. In winter you can fill the boat with grouper in 25' of water. Everything that gets thrown into the rivers flows into the sea and therefore to the sea bottom also. I see no reason to fight over this. We should be concerned about this natural resource.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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It was the same way if Fla. until they put in strict laws and enforced them .In five short years the sardines came back along with them the Kingfish also. They stopped the gill netters through a buy back program and the mullet came back also. Now fish everywhere. In winter you can fill the boat with grouper in 25' of water.
You are 100% correct.
 

Robert

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Jan 2, 1999
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Reef watch are very active here and I think you will find Bayahibe has a VERY successful reef generation program in place. The same program has been extended to certain reefs off of the north coast as well.

Over the past few years we have had a number of people from National Geographic and various marine science groups come to our office whilst working on various projects around the country. Things are happening!
 

Tuan

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Aug 28, 2004
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save your tears

Reef Relief is probably the org you want. Meanwhile, some facts might help here.

What most people think of as "reefs", those pretty coral eco-systems, don't exist much around the DR which, like the Mediterranean, has steep sides with very little habitat. It mostly has "shoals", not "reefs" as most people mean them. ONGs make a lot of donation money promoting their supposed ability to "bring back" mudbanks. Real reefs are another kettle of fish entirely.

Often reefs are referred to as "bleached". The ONGs sell the line that fishermen use chloro to chase out their prey, and that this "bleaches" the reefs. In reality, coral has cycles in which it goes fallow: grey/white, as in "bleached". It was discovered in the Virgin Islands that some of these cycles at our latitute are caused (or, the way nature works, perhaps we should say "helped") by microbes attached to, of all things, the red/brown Sahara dust which falls on us seasonally. Bet you thought that was road dust, even though you're sitting on the eastern shore line, huh? This honey of a fact doesn't get much publicity because it would turn off donor money.

Another inconvenient fact, as Al Gore would say, is that fishermen in the DR do not easily dive to 100 feet, as suggested by a DR1 poster in this thread. That's PADI resort diving stuff. A DR diver uses a few feet of vinyl garden hose attached to a gasoline driven compressor with an old rusty gas station air tank in a yola where his assistant shells and scales the catch he sends up from the bottom. And the bottom is in the Silver Banks, Mouchoir Banks, Navidad and Bahamas Banks where he often goes to jail for poaching.

100 foot fishing in the DR is for spoiled ex-pats and tourists with their multi-coloured dive gear and tall tales, or it's plain old line fishing from a yola from midnight to 9 a.m. before the wind gets up. Again, not on coral reefs and not romantic.

You want coral reefs, go to Ras Mohammet, Belize/Honduras barrier reef and its offshore reefs, Bay Islands of Honduras (yes, Roatan), countless atolls in Micronesia, many in Polynesia, not so many in Macronesia, and of course, the Bahamas Far Out Islands. And save your tears and your donations for them, they're all doing very well, thank you.
 

Narcosis

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Dec 18, 2003
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What most people think of as "reefs", those pretty coral eco-systems, don't exist much around the DR which, like the Mediterranean, has steep sides with very little habitat. It mostly has "shoals", not "reefs" as most people mean them. ONGs make a lot of donation money promoting their supposed ability to "bring back" mudbanks. Real reefs are another kettle of fish entirely.

Another inconvenient fact, as Al Gore would say, is that fishermen in the DR do not easily dive to 100 feet, as suggested by a DR1 poster in this thread. That's PADI resort diving stuff. A DR diver uses a few feet of vinyl garden hose attached to a gasoline driven compressor with an old rusty gas station air tank in a yola where his assistant shells and scales the catch he sends up from the bottom. And the bottom is in the Silver Banks, Mouchoir Banks, Navidad and Bahamas Banks where he often goes to jail for poaching.

100 foot fishing in the DR is for spoiled ex-pats and tourists with their multi-coloured dive gear and tall tales, or it's plain old line fishing from a yola from midnight to 9 a.m. before the wind gets up. Again, not on coral reefs and not romantic.

You want coral reefs, go to Ras Mohammet, Belize/Honduras barrier reef and its offshore reefs, Bay Islands of Honduras (yes, Roatan), countless atolls in Micronesia, many in Polynesia, not so many in Macronesia, and of course, the Bahamas Far Out Islands. And save your tears and your donations for them, they're all doing very well, thank you.

Your confused description of what a "coral reef" should be is full of contradictions.

If the DR coastline is steep how can you then say that what exists here are "shoals", which by the way is the exact opposite. Shoals are normally related to shallow water and form islands such as those in the Bahamas.

What we do have here are barrier reefs, one of which is just off Punta Cana as there is a pristine one further south off the northern coast of Saona island and serveral others around the country in protected areas and national parks such as Parque National del Este or Parque Jaragua in the Southwest.

Compressor divers are all over the caribbean, and is a problem not unique to this country, as is overfishing with handline over deeper reefs. Not sure what your point regarding that is either.

Your last paragraph is out of line, as this site and especially this thread is about the DR, and no one has to go anywhere to see a coral reef.

To suggest people not donate or care about efforts made in our country to help protect and manage our marine resources shows where your heart is.