Coiba National Park, Panama
It is the evening of a gorgeous day, and I can't find the right words to describe the incredible array of experiences we had today. Birdwatching, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking and the pure joy of relaxing under a coconut palm being fanned by sweet ocean breeze. By now we all are enjoying cocktail hour, admiring the sunset and treasuring today's memories that will remain in us for good.
After navigating for over 100 nautical miles, the Sea Voyager found itself in the sleepy blue waters of Coiba National Park, with an area of over 500,000 acres, in which 80% is marine habitat. This park is part of a fairly new marine corridor that stretches all the way from Galápagos (Ecuador), Malpelo and Gorgona (Colombia) to Cocos Islands (Costa Rica). In addition to its ecological importance, Coiba played a main role in the history of Panama, by being a major penal colony similar to Alcatraz from 1919 until 2004.
Due to this, it was protected from deforestation but as well to be turned into a sort of Acapulco or Cancun.
Aside from the great biodiversity in the marine life, the main land inherits monkeys, deer, snakes, iguanas, agoutis, crocodiles and spectacular birds which won’t be seen in mainland Panama. But for today, we left our hiking shoes back in the cabins and instead we wore our flippers and snorkel gear to experience another kind of ecosystem, a rocky-coral reef. A reef is a complex structure formed by rocks, or by the hard calcareous skeleton of polyps (corals) or by sunken ships. On them many different algaes grow, providing food for several grazer fishes like damsels, surgeons and wrasses. Other species, like hammer sharks, will come to the reef not to feed but to be cleaned of their parasites; by acquiring a particular coloration or position they let know the cleaners their intentions. For example, angel and butterfly fish are good beauticians. Other fish are white sand factories: provided by nature with a parrot-like beak, the well named parrot fish will take chunks out from the coral (4000 bites per day) munch on them and produce one ton of white sand a year.
All these different jobs being performed by thousands of fishes is why the Coral and Rocky reef habitats compare to the lushness and biodiversity of the rain forest, and therefore they deserve to be protected too. The life of the planet started in the ocean's waters, and it is our job to keep this heart pumping.
It is the evening of a gorgeous day, and I can't find the right words to describe the incredible array of experiences we had today. Birdwatching, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking and the pure joy of relaxing under a coconut palm being fanned by sweet ocean breeze. By now we all are enjoying cocktail hour, admiring the sunset and treasuring today's memories that will remain in us for good.
After navigating for over 100 nautical miles, the Sea Voyager found itself in the sleepy blue waters of Coiba National Park, with an area of over 500,000 acres, in which 80% is marine habitat. This park is part of a fairly new marine corridor that stretches all the way from Galápagos (Ecuador), Malpelo and Gorgona (Colombia) to Cocos Islands (Costa Rica). In addition to its ecological importance, Coiba played a main role in the history of Panama, by being a major penal colony similar to Alcatraz from 1919 until 2004.
Due to this, it was protected from deforestation but as well to be turned into a sort of Acapulco or Cancun.
Aside from the great biodiversity in the marine life, the main land inherits monkeys, deer, snakes, iguanas, agoutis, crocodiles and spectacular birds which won’t be seen in mainland Panama. But for today, we left our hiking shoes back in the cabins and instead we wore our flippers and snorkel gear to experience another kind of ecosystem, a rocky-coral reef. A reef is a complex structure formed by rocks, or by the hard calcareous skeleton of polyps (corals) or by sunken ships. On them many different algaes grow, providing food for several grazer fishes like damsels, surgeons and wrasses. Other species, like hammer sharks, will come to the reef not to feed but to be cleaned of their parasites; by acquiring a particular coloration or position they let know the cleaners their intentions. For example, angel and butterfly fish are good beauticians. Other fish are white sand factories: provided by nature with a parrot-like beak, the well named parrot fish will take chunks out from the coral (4000 bites per day) munch on them and produce one ton of white sand a year.
All these different jobs being performed by thousands of fishes is why the Coral and Rocky reef habitats compare to the lushness and biodiversity of the rain forest, and therefore they deserve to be protected too. The life of the planet started in the ocean's waters, and it is our job to keep this heart pumping.
