Whales of the Silver Bank - Your Destination

The Silver Bank is located 100 km north of the Dominican Republic and approximately the same distance from the Turks and Caicos Islands and is one of numerous breeding and calving zones of humpback whales. Research indicates that the Silver Bank contains the largest population of humpbacks in the North Atlantic Ocean, if not the world. During 1993, YONAH a research group took 1,752 different biopsies during a six-week period within a six-mile circumference of our mooring position. Conservative estimates believe three to five thousand humpbacks pass through this odd shaped twenty square miles encompassing the Silver Bank during a season. On October 14, 1986 President Joaquin Balagaer issued a declaration establishing the Silver Bank as a whale sanctuary. On July 5, 1996, by presidential decree No. 233/96, Article 22, the Silver Bank Sanctuary was enlarged and renamed the "Sanctuary for the Marine Mammals of the Dominican Republic". The jurisdiction of the sanctuary encompasses Samana Bay and the Northern and Eastern coastline of the Dominican Republic. From December to the middle of April waters of the Dominican Republic are alive with migrating North Atlantic Humpback Whales enroute to breeding and calving zones throughout the area.

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