The eastern boundary includes Fort Liberté, the capital of the Nord-Est (department), which is one of the oldest cities in the country and where Haiti's independence was proclaimed.

[5] The area contains some of the most extensive and healthiest fringing and barrier coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests in the country, which provide critical coastal protection and ecosystem services for its seaside communities.

[6] The region is also of historical importance, having witnessed centuries of human history dating from pre-Columbian times and indigenous Taino occupations, to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the sequence of world-altering events through Spanish and French colonization and the Haitian Revolution.

The mountaintop fortress of the Citadelle Laferrière, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located approximately 10 miles (16 km) southwest, provides a bird's eye view of the Three Bays Protected Area.

This IUCN Category IV — Habitat/Species Management Area was created by Presidential Decree on March 21 (2014) to protect its unique marine complex of fringing and barrier coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests, and adjacent deep ocean and coastal plain.