Casa de Campo Living
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Last Saturday 13th of June 2012, a baby manatee, was spotted in the “Parque Nacional del Este” national park area and thanks to the “Fundación Dominicana de Estudios Marinos” (The Dominican Foundation for Marine Research), otherwise known as FUNDEMAR, the manatee was successfully reunited with it’s parents. Here we share with you this great “rescue” story and photos of this manatee family that live here on the Eastern coast of the Dominican Republic!
It all started when group of divers known as “Dressel Divers”, based in the La Romana-Bayahibe area, spotted a manatee on Dominicus beach right in front of the Iberostar Hotels and Rita Sellares, Director of FUNDEMAR, immediately went over to take a look. Rita soon realized that the small 1m long manatee was only a baby – a cause for alarm as baby manatees need to be fed from their mothers for at least the first two years of their life (until they develop teeth, which allow them to feed on marine plants) – so the question was…. where was his mother??? It seemed the baby manatee was a bit lost!
The baby manatee was spotted near Dominicus Beach 
During the 1970’s, the coasts of the “Parque Nacional del Este” was a prime habitat for manatees,populated by at least 4 “families” or “groups” of the animals. However, in recent times the area has become dangerous for the species – leading them close extinction and causing them to disappear from many small Caribbean islands, such as Guadeloupe. However, despite declining numbers of manatees in the Bayahibe-Dominicus area, recently FUNDEMAR has noted regular appearances of manatees in the Parque Nacional del Este, where many of them have been filmed and photographed by tourists and residents.
And so after looking for his mother in the surrounding areas, FUNDEMAR joined by Dressel Divers, the La Romana-Bayahibe Hotels Association, the Tourism Clúster, the Ministry of Environment, the Directors of the”Parque Nacional del Este” national park and the Aquarium which works in conjunction with the Center for Marine Animal Rescue, planned a strategy to take care of the manatee – being sure to follow his movements across other parts of the beach in the Bayahibe-Dominicus area.
The “tracking” of baby manatee was quiet a successful and easy task during day time, however, the big trouble started when baby manatee disappeared into the deep sea at night… But don’t worry! The good news is that, after many hours of worry caused by his disappearance – thanks to a clever communication system established between these organisations and the residents of the area at around 3:00 p.m on Sunday, a humble fisherman reported that he had seen the manatee only 2 kilometers away from Guaraguao on Saona Island.
Rita of Fundemar (center) and her team take care of the baby manatee

So based from this new location, the organisations monitored baby manatee’s status – which unfortunately seemed to be pretty sad, as the poor lost baby was heard “crying” out to his mother.
BUT! At 5:00pm when this story appeared to be leading to a very sad and tragic ending, baby manatee started to move about erratically! Uncertain about what was going on, the team heard a very loud noise coming from under the sea, after which two adult manatees appeared pretty close to them – one of them the baby manatee’s mother which had finally found him!! Phew!
Mummy manatee feeding our lost baby manatee!

“The reunion between mother and child and the opportunity to see how quickly the baby began to eat as they left, was a magical moment for those who were there, an experience that one can only live once in lifetime – a happy ending for this manatee and hope for the survival of the species”.
– Rita Sellares, Directora de FUNDEMAR
Many thanks to Rita Sellares who contributed with the photos and also helped us elaborate this article!
Saona Island, Parque Nacional del Este 

Saona Island, part of Eastern National Park, classified a protected area since September 16th, 1975, is uniquely elongated in shape – approximately 22km in length and between 5 and 6 km wide and was until the mid-nineteenth century sporadically populated, a fact which limited its use to tree cutting and maritime surveillance – meaning that the area has remained pristine and “untouched.”
During the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, in 1944 the village of Mano Juan was built as a shelter for 14 families who settled there, thus becoming the only inhabited area in the “Parque Nacional del Este”. Today Mano Juan has about 300 inhabitants who live in traditional Caribbean houses of wood painted with bright colors. Most of the population depends on fishing, as well as massage services, sales of different types of food and handicrafts for the many tourists who visit the town.
Today the Saona Island is one of the Dominican Republic’s principle tourist attractions, with thousands of tourists visiting everyday on boat trips from nearby hotels.
About FUNDEMAR
FUNDEMAR is an organisation dedicated to the promote, advise, plan and maintain sustainable use of the marine ecosystem and its resources through research, education and conservation policies. It has a technical team based working on science, vocation and efficiency, who develop projects with the misson of accomplishing the organisation’s objectives.
FUNDEMAR website: www.fundemar.org.do

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Casa de Campo Living is an independent, community run news site focused on helping our community enjoy their time in and around Casa de Campo.
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(809) 523-2045
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