Site Country Institution Code Latitude North Longitude West Reef Area (km2) Description Map Ambergris Cay/Hol Chan Reserve Belize HCMR 17°55' - 18° 87°50' "Located on the eastern side of bahia de Chetumal, inside the barrier reef, south of Boca Bacalar Chico which forms the Belize-Mexico boundary. Ambergris Cay is the largest and northernmost of the Belize cays. It is a spit formation estending southwards from the Mexican mainland. The cay consists of mangrove swamps, lagoons, a plateau in the north, and sand ridges. There is a narrow, windward, sand and rubble beach ridge, with a broad expanse of supratidal flats and intra-island lagoons." Bahia de Chengue, Parque Nacional Tayrona Colombia INVEMAR 11°08' 74°20' "Bahia de Chengue is a small bay (surface area 3.3 sq. km in the Parque Nacional Tayrona, located 14 km northeast of the city of Santa Marta. The coastal topography is heterogenous, with steep relief due to the closeness of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest mountain system of Colombia (5,800 m above sea level). Most of the bottom on the Bahia de Chengue is sandy and deeper than 10 m. Coastal lagoons, mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs have developed at the eastern and southern shores of the bay." Barbados Barbados BRI 13°11' 59°38' Bermuda Bermuda BBSR 32° 65° Bonaire Bonaire, N.A. BMP 12°10' 68°15' Located approx. 100 km north of Venezuela. Calabash Caye, Turneffe Islands Atoll Belize UCB 17°38'-17°09' 87°44'-87°57' "The Turneffe Islands Atoll is roughly lens-shaped, with a maximum length of 50 km and a width of 16 km at its widest point. Turneffe is separated from the barrier reef by a 10-16 km wide, 275-300 m deep channel (Gibson 1990). It is bounded by a drying reef to the north and by Caye Bokel to the south. There is a well-defined narrow reef on the eastern, windward side. The reef crest is narrow and fringes the outer edge of a reef flat less than 400 m wide. The reef is highly segmented with about 23 gaps, or channels, most of which are less than 50 m and 6 m deep. Small sandy cayes are located between the channels on the inner edge of the eastern side of the reef flat; one of these is Calabash Caye. Calabash Caye, home to the UCB Marine Research Centre, is a sandy caye located on the eastern rim of the atoll, aligned NNE-SSW, parallel to the reef. In 1962 Stoddart reported Calabash Caye to be 42 m long and 32-50 m wide; the caye has grown considerably since then. The caye has a dense cover of mangrove forests and other low cover vegetation. A 500 m long interior lagoon, the ""back lagoon"", is located in the middle of the caye. It has an average salinity of 36% and there is little flushing. It supports a unique ecosystem of sponges, jellyfish and tunicates. A sandy beach and an extensive fringing reef with diverse species of fish, coral, algae and other marine invertebreates extend along the entire east coast of Calabash Caye. Turtle grass (the dominant species) and manatee grass are found in the shallow waters surrounding the caye." Campeche Mexico UAC 19°40' 90°35' Carrie Bow Cay Belize SMITH 16°48' 88°05' "Carrie Bow Cay is a small sand island with a surface area of 0.36 ha located 18 km offshore in the central province of the Belize barrier reef complex. It is protected from open ocean waves by a crescent-shaped reef crest to the east ans a 100 m wide reef flat that extends from the crest to the island's seaward shore. The island was formerly double its present size, but mangrove clearing led to progressive erosion by storm tides. Currently it has an elliptical shape, aligned north-south, is 120 m long, between mean tide level points, and has a maximum width of 36 m. The cay is separated from the mainland by a deep and wide lagoon, which grades into shallow seagrass bottoms, patch reefs and mangrove cays on the outer barrier platform. Although the reef-seagrass-mangrove complex near Carrie Bow Cay is representative of the entire barrier reef complex, the central province contains the most spectacular reef development. Twin Cay, site of the CARICOMP mangrove and seagrass studies, is located approx. 2.3 km leeward of Carrie Bow Cay in the outer lagoon." Cayo Cochinos Honduras ICC 16°00' 86°33' Cayo Coco, Sabana-Camaguey Archipelago Cuba IOC-CIEC 22°33' 78°26' Cayo Coco occupies an area of 370 sq. km. Curacao Curacao, N.A. CARMABI "12°02'80""" "68°44'30""" Discovery Bay Jamaica UWI "18° 28' 00""" "77° 24' 30""" 1.4 Discovery Bay is located on the west-central portion of Jamaica's north coast. The Bay forms a sharp indentation in the coast. It is partly cut off from the sea by the fringing reef which extends between the two headlands, broken by a channel which was dredeged to 12 m in 1966 to allow the traffic of ore-carrying ships to the Kaiser Bauxite terminal. In the lagoon zone behind the fringing reef in the west of the Bay are several submarine springs (Woodley and Robinson, 1977) and a 13 m deep drowned sink hole (Blue Hole). A deep basin within the Bay occupies most of the west and centre. Fine sediments accumulates in this and low illumination prevails. Grand Cayman Cayman Islands DOE 19°18' 81°16' The largest of the three Cayman Islands, its 2 most conspicuous features are the contiguous Central Swamp and North Sound. Great Corn Island Nicaragua UCA 12°10 83° The island is volcanic with low coastal areas and numerous beaches between rocky headlands. It has an area of 10.3 sq km and is inhabited by approx. 5000 persons. Isla de Margarita Venezuela FLS "10°51'49""" "64°03'28""" Punta de Mangle is located on the southern coast of Isla de Margarita. Isla de Providencia Y San Andres Colombia CORALINA 13°19' & 12°28' 81°21' & 81°40' 250 km off the Nicaraguan coast; 90 km from San Andres, the island has an area 15 sq. km. San Andres is an oceanic island lying 200 km off the coast of Nicaragua, some 720 km WNW off the Columbian coast. The island is 12 km long and 3 km wide with a maximum elevation of 100m. La Parguera Puerto Rico UPR 18°01' 66°59' La Parguera is a coastal village within the township of Lajas on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. Laguna de Celestun, Yucatan Mexico CINVESTAV 20°45' 90°15' Laguna de Celestun is a macrophyte-mangrove co-dominated system situated on the western shore of the Yucatan Peninsula, southern Gulf of Mexico. It is 28 km long and separated from the sea by a sand bar; average and maximum depths are 1.2 and 3 m respectively. the lagoon system is markedly affected by infiltration of cold nutrient-rich groundwater discharges and is estuarine in nature with respect to salinity. There are no coral reefs in this area. Laguna Gandoca Costa Rica UCR 9°35' 82°36' The CARICOMP sites are located in two protected areas on the southern portion of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica near the Panamanian border. The mangrove site is located at Laguna Gandoca, within the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo. The seagrass and coral reef sites are located in the Parque Nacional Cahuita about 30 km northwest of Gandoca-Manzanillo. Panama Panama STRI 9°63' 79°50' Parque Nacional de Cahuita Costa Rica UCR 9°45' 82°48' The CARICOMP sites are located in two protected areas on the southern portion of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica near the Panamanian border. The mangrove site is located at Laguna Gandoca, within the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo. The seagrass and coral reef sites are located in the Parque Nacional Cahuita about 30 km northwest of Gandoca-Manzanillo. Parque Nacional del Este Dominican Republic USD 18°15' 68°46' Parque Nacional, Morrocoy Venezuela USB 10°52' 69°16' Located on the northwestern coast of Golfo Triste, a large inlet on the west-central coast of Venezuela. The 32,090 ha park includes continental, insular and marine ecosystems and 2 marine zones are distinguished. Port-au-Prince Haiti FoProBIM 18°37' 72°22' Portland Bight Jamaica CCAMF Puerto Morelos Mexico UNAM 20°51' 86°55' Puerto Morelos is located on the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula Saba Saba, N.A. SMP "17°36'59""" "63°15'09""" San Salvador Bahamas BFS 24°3' 74°30' Situated 640 km ESE of Miami, Florida. It is surrounded by 4,000-m-deep waters and is exposed to waves from the Atlantic Ocean. St. Lucia St. Lucia CEHI 14°03' 61°05' Tobago Trinidad and Tobago IMA 11°10' 60°51' 7