Alto Velo Island is an island located atop a crest, about 152 metres above sea level. One of the tips of the underwater mountain range of the Beata Island

Beata Island

Beata Island is a small island on the Caribbean Sea, located 7 km southwest from cape Beata, the southernmost point of the island Hispaniola. Some 12 km SW of it lies the smaller Alto Velo Island...

 runs throughout the
southwestern coast of the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. It has an area of 1,02 km² auf.. The United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 wanted to take control of this island in 1860 due to the Guano Islands Act

Guano Islands Act

The Guano Islands Act is federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, on August 18, 1856. It enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and not within the jurisdiction of other...

.

It is located approximately 120 nautical miles (222.2 km) southwest of Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

, or 40 nautical miles (74.1 km) south of Pedernales, making it the southernmost point of the Dominican Republic; a title some times given to Beata Island

Beata Island

Beata Island is a small island on the Caribbean Sea, located 7 km southwest from cape Beata, the southernmost point of the island Hispaniola. Some 12 km SW of it lies the smaller Alto Velo Island...

.

Alto Velo and Beata Islands belong to the Jaragua National Park

Jaragua National Park

Jaragua National Park is a national park of the Dominican Republic. Jaragua National Park is located in Pedenales Province in the extreme southwest of the Dominican Republic...

 making it the largest protected area in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

region.