Panama Bay Islands
We woke up anchored on the lee side of Otoque Island, one of the three rocky islands 20 miles off of the southern exit of the Panama Canal. This region, in contrast with what happens in the rest of the Eastern Pacific, is well known for cold, dark, rich waters, and numerous quantities of sea birds. This happens thanks to the upwelling that occurs during the strong northeasterly trade winds from November to March. The winds remove the hot surface waters and these are replaced by the cold nutrient rich waters from the bottom. The animals come as a consequence of the nutrient filled waters, if the waters are rich, that means food for the fish, which means lots of food for the different species of sea birds.
Off we went this morning on our faithful Zodiacs around the Panama Bay Islands of Otoque, Bona and Estiva. Each one of them has a different species of marine bird, including brown or blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans or magnificent frigatebirds. Many of the couples of birds had chicks at different stages of development. The one thing these chicks have in common is the white down covering and the prehistoric look that reminds us that birds descend from reptiles. They are the closest creatures resembling a pterodactyl I can think of…
Back on board, we moved the ship towards the west side of Panama to our afternoon destination. Iguana Island is a wildlife refuge that not only protects the marine life surrounding it, but is specially known for the large and accessible magnificent frigatebird colony. Anything from immature individuals to adult males and females are active all day which allowed us to enjoy not only the sight of them, but also allowed us a glimpse of their behavior. As the sun set on the horizon with amazing orange and red colors, we headed around the Azuero Peninsula to the trip’s last site in Panama: Coiba Island National Park.
We woke up anchored on the lee side of Otoque Island, one of the three rocky islands 20 miles off of the southern exit of the Panama Canal. This region, in contrast with what happens in the rest of the Eastern Pacific, is well known for cold, dark, rich waters, and numerous quantities of sea birds. This happens thanks to the upwelling that occurs during the strong northeasterly trade winds from November to March. The winds remove the hot surface waters and these are replaced by the cold nutrient rich waters from the bottom. The animals come as a consequence of the nutrient filled waters, if the waters are rich, that means food for the fish, which means lots of food for the different species of sea birds.
Off we went this morning on our faithful Zodiacs around the Panama Bay Islands of Otoque, Bona and Estiva. Each one of them has a different species of marine bird, including brown or blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans or magnificent frigatebirds. Many of the couples of birds had chicks at different stages of development. The one thing these chicks have in common is the white down covering and the prehistoric look that reminds us that birds descend from reptiles. They are the closest creatures resembling a pterodactyl I can think of…
Back on board, we moved the ship towards the west side of Panama to our afternoon destination. Iguana Island is a wildlife refuge that not only protects the marine life surrounding it, but is specially known for the large and accessible magnificent frigatebird colony. Anything from immature individuals to adult males and females are active all day which allowed us to enjoy not only the sight of them, but also allowed us a glimpse of their behavior. As the sun set on the horizon with amazing orange and red colors, we headed around the Azuero Peninsula to the trip’s last site in Panama: Coiba Island National Park.
