Otoque & Bona Islands, Panama Canal
Today was our second day in Panama and what a great time we had! To start our day we began right after breakfast by jumping into the Zodiacs for a morning cruise around the islands of Otoque and Bona. Located in the Bay of Panama, these islands are teeming with seabirds, in numbers we may have thought impossible. The large number of birds in these places is thanks to a seasonal upwelling that takes place here in the Bay of Panama, resulting in some of the richest and most productive waters in Central America. This upwelling is caused by the strong trade winds that blow from the Atlantic across the country and when they get to the Bay of Panama they push the warm surface water away from the coast and it is replaced with the colder waters from the sea bottom. These colder waters are full of nutrients that feed the primary producers know as phytoplankton. The abundant sunlight triggers an explosion in these organisms, which in turn will be eaten by zooplankton, and then they too become food for small fish like anchovies, which will then be eaten by larger fish like tuna and snapper and so on.
So, of course, thanks to this upwelling there is enough food for the large colonies of sea birds that we saw today during the Zodiac cruise, among them brown pelicans, blue-footed booby, brown booby and many magnificent frigatebirds. Indeed, here in the picture we can see one of the frigatebird males in full display with his gular pouch fully inflated to court any passing females.
Later in the afternoon we cruised to the Panama Canal to start our crossing at the beginning of our evening through the first set of lock name Miraflores locks, then Pedro Miguel locks and ended our day at anchor in the Gatun Lake.
Today was our second day in Panama and what a great time we had! To start our day we began right after breakfast by jumping into the Zodiacs for a morning cruise around the islands of Otoque and Bona. Located in the Bay of Panama, these islands are teeming with seabirds, in numbers we may have thought impossible. The large number of birds in these places is thanks to a seasonal upwelling that takes place here in the Bay of Panama, resulting in some of the richest and most productive waters in Central America. This upwelling is caused by the strong trade winds that blow from the Atlantic across the country and when they get to the Bay of Panama they push the warm surface water away from the coast and it is replaced with the colder waters from the sea bottom. These colder waters are full of nutrients that feed the primary producers know as phytoplankton. The abundant sunlight triggers an explosion in these organisms, which in turn will be eaten by zooplankton, and then they too become food for small fish like anchovies, which will then be eaten by larger fish like tuna and snapper and so on.
So, of course, thanks to this upwelling there is enough food for the large colonies of sea birds that we saw today during the Zodiac cruise, among them brown pelicans, blue-footed booby, brown booby and many magnificent frigatebirds. Indeed, here in the picture we can see one of the frigatebird males in full display with his gular pouch fully inflated to court any passing females.
Later in the afternoon we cruised to the Panama Canal to start our crossing at the beginning of our evening through the first set of lock name Miraflores locks, then Pedro Miguel locks and ended our day at anchor in the Gatun Lake.
