The Dominican shelf has a surface area of 8,130 km
2 extending down to 200 m
depth, with an average width of 7.5 km. The platform area of Haiti is estimated at
6,683 km
2 and is on average narrower. Important coastal habitats include sandy or
muddy bottoms (related to the degree of terrigenous influence), commonly populated with abundant macrophytobenthos, especially seagrasses, followed by coral
patches and fringing or barrier reefs. In Haiti coral reefs occur near Vache Island,
all around Gonave Island in the central Bay of Port-au-Prince, on the Rochelois
Bank, at Cayemites Islands, off the northern coast of the southern peninsula, and
from the border with the Dominican Republic in the east to Acul Bay just west of
Cape Haitien (Creary et al. 2008). Well preserved reefs are found at Navassa
Island (Causey et al. 2000).
In the Dominican Republic important reef areas include the Montecristi
National Park barrier reef in the north-west (where the shelf is widest), narrow
high-energy reefs in the central region, and the Bávaro-Macao-Punta Cana barrier
reef system at the eastern end. Samaná Bay receives many rivers and is the largest
estuary of the insular Caribbean. Coastal reefs in the vicinity are poorly developed,
but the Christmas and Silver Banks reef systems are about 100 km to the north. To
the south, on the Caribbean coast, are the well-studied reefs of National East Park
and the adjacent Saona Island. Uplifted carbonate terraces with reefs growing on
narrow platforms are present in the west from Catalina Island to beyond Santo
Domingo (e.g. Boca Chica and the Submarine National Park La Caleta). Conditions are not good for reefs in the south-west, except on the shallow sheltered shelf
east of Cabo Beata at National Park Jaragua (Woodley et al. 2000).
13.2 Research
Echinoderm studies of the waters around Hispaniola Island have a long history.
The Haitian collection of David Friedrich Weinland from 1857 (NMNH 2002) and
the work on holothuroids by Emil Selenka (1867), with the record of Actinopyga
agassizi (Selenka, 1867) in Haiti and the description of the type specimen of
Holothuria grisea Selenka, 1867, are among the earliest contributions.
William More Gabb made collections in the Dominican Republic in 1878 and
deposited several specimens of Echinometra lucunter (Linnaeus, 1758) in the U.S.
National Museum of Natural History (Rathbun, 1886). In December 1878, during
the Blake Expedition, the echinoid Salenocidaris varispina (A. Agassiz, 1880) was
collected northwest of Haiti at 2,195 m depth (A. Agassiz, 1880). Dodërlein and
Hartmeyer (1910) and Verrill (1915) summarized previous records of asteroids
from Hispaniola. Hubert L. Clark (1919) provided the first taxonomic summary of
Haitian echinoderms listing more than 20 species of all classes, except crinoids.
In the 1930s, new contributions to the knowledge of echinoderms from
Hispaniola include Deichmann (1930) who summarized previous records for the
Dominican Republic and Haiti in her review of the holothurians of the western part
of the Atlantic Ocean. The handbook of the littoral echinoderms of Porto Rico and
426
A. Herrera-Moreno and L. Betancourt
2 extending down to 200 m
depth, with an average width of 7.5 km. The platform area of Haiti is estimated at
6,683 km
2 and is on average narrower. Important coastal habitats include sandy or
muddy bottoms (related to the degree of terrigenous influence), commonly populated with abundant macrophytobenthos, especially seagrasses, followed by coral
patches and fringing or barrier reefs. In Haiti coral reefs occur near Vache Island,
all around Gonave Island in the central Bay of Port-au-Prince, on the Rochelois
Bank, at Cayemites Islands, off the northern coast of the southern peninsula, and
from the border with the Dominican Republic in the east to Acul Bay just west of
Cape Haitien (Creary et al. 2008). Well preserved reefs are found at Navassa
Island (Causey et al. 2000).
In the Dominican Republic important reef areas include the Montecristi
National Park barrier reef in the north-west (where the shelf is widest), narrow
high-energy reefs in the central region, and the Bávaro-Macao-Punta Cana barrier
reef system at the eastern end. Samaná Bay receives many rivers and is the largest
estuary of the insular Caribbean. Coastal reefs in the vicinity are poorly developed,
but the Christmas and Silver Banks reef systems are about 100 km to the north. To
the south, on the Caribbean coast, are the well-studied reefs of National East Park
and the adjacent Saona Island. Uplifted carbonate terraces with reefs growing on
narrow platforms are present in the west from Catalina Island to beyond Santo
Domingo (e.g. Boca Chica and the Submarine National Park La Caleta). Conditions are not good for reefs in the south-west, except on the shallow sheltered shelf
east of Cabo Beata at National Park Jaragua (Woodley et al. 2000).
13.2 Research
Echinoderm studies of the waters around Hispaniola Island have a long history.
The Haitian collection of David Friedrich Weinland from 1857 (NMNH 2002) and
the work on holothuroids by Emil Selenka (1867), with the record of Actinopyga
agassizi (Selenka, 1867) in Haiti and the description of the type specimen of
Holothuria grisea Selenka, 1867, are among the earliest contributions.
William More Gabb made collections in the Dominican Republic in 1878 and
deposited several specimens of Echinometra lucunter (Linnaeus, 1758) in the U.S.
National Museum of Natural History (Rathbun, 1886). In December 1878, during
the Blake Expedition, the echinoid Salenocidaris varispina (A. Agassiz, 1880) was
collected northwest of Haiti at 2,195 m depth (A. Agassiz, 1880). Dodërlein and
Hartmeyer (1910) and Verrill (1915) summarized previous records of asteroids
from Hispaniola. Hubert L. Clark (1919) provided the first taxonomic summary of
Haitian echinoderms listing more than 20 species of all classes, except crinoids.
In the 1930s, new contributions to the knowledge of echinoderms from
Hispaniola include Deichmann (1930) who summarized previous records for the
Dominican Republic and Haiti in her review of the holothurians of the western part
of the Atlantic Ocean. The handbook of the littoral echinoderms of Porto Rico and
426
A. Herrera-Moreno and L. Betancourt