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HISPABIOTA MARINA is a long term project implemented by Programa EcoMar in Dominican Republic to create the first inventory of the coastal and marine biota from Hispaniola Island (Dominican Republic and Haiti). All taxonomic groups (from microalgae to mammals) are being reviewed to create full databases and distribution maps. Preliminary species lists are available for most of the groups and some results (e.g. macroalgae, sponges, chitons, sea anemones, stomatopods, brachiopods and cetaceans) have been published and/or presented in scientific events.  A general inventory of the marina fauna is also available. The echinoderm database has been used to prepare: “Recent echinoderms for Hispaniola Island” a chapter in the regional book Echinoderms research and diversity in Latin American published by Springer in 2012. The cetacean database were used to prepare the book Datos sobre las ballenas jorobadas (Megaptera novaengliae) de la bahía de Samaná in 2007 to promote a responsible whale watching in Samaná Bay; a scientific paper presented in the International Whaling Commission in 2012 to demonstrate the socioeconomic importance of whale watching versus hunting;  and the presentation "A review of marine mammal records from Hispaniola" at the 21st Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in 2015. During the project: “Contribution of Hispabiota Marina to the Biogeographic Information System of the Oceans” between 2013 to 2014; 185 occurrences of echinoderm species with coordinates were incorporated to OBIS through the Caribbean node. In 2015 the Ministry of the Environment requested Programa EcoMar to prepare the national report “Current situation of biodiversity of Dominican Republic” and 2,047 Dominican marine species were included. The contributions of Hispabiota Marina highlight the capacity of Programa EcoMar to mobilize biodiversity data and the potential of this project to enrich the international databases with new data from Hispaniola Island. Currently the Project BID-CA2020-012-INS: "Assessment and update of GBIF marine macroalgae databases (Rhodophyta, Ochrophyta and Chlorophyta) from Haiti and Dominican Republic (Hispaniola)" is being implemented, sponsored by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. A second macroalgae inventory has been published for Hispaniola and a first one for Haiti. The GBIF databases have been expanded with new records and species.

Last updated: July 15, 2022 Programa Ecomar, Inc., Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic