Islands Of Bona And Otoque, Panama Gulf
Today is just the second day of our Central American adventure and what can we say about it that will do it justice? Things just keep getting better. Today we awoke anchored in the lee of the beautiful islets of Bona and Otoque, right in the Gulf of Panama. This gulf has extremely productive waters due a local upwelling phenomenon—this basically means very rich waters. The phenomenon occurs here thanks to the trade winds that are coming from the northeast and blow across this low and narrow part of the Isthmus of Panama: when they reach the gulf they blow away all the warm water from the surface and this is replaced by cold waters from the depths. The latter is packed with nutrients that are vital for the growth of phytoplankton, which in turn serves as food for the zooplankton that will end up as prey for small fish that will in time be a source of food for a larger fish and so on and on. The rich waters in this area thus support a long and complex web of life, and we got to experience this today not in the water itself but above it and all around us. We used our fleet of Zodiacs to explore the great communities of sea birds that abound on these islets and are for the most part in full breeding swing: brown pelicans, blue-footed boobies, yellow-crowned night-herons, brown boobies and a peregrine falcon. Undoubtedly however, the most spectacular of them all were the magnificent frigatebirds, in particular the males in full sexual display with their fully-inflated red gular pouches giving the peculiar impression to onlookers that they are bearing red balloons on their beaks as gifts for the females.
The rest of the morning was spent learning to kayak in the calm waters of the bay or swimming from the stern. After a delicious lunch we lifted anchor for a long navigation to Coiba Island, and were blessed with calm seas and the company of brown boobies delighting us with their lance-like plunge dives. We were then treated to a presentation on basic tropical ecology, accompanied by spectacular photos, by National Geographic lecturer Randy Babb.
Today is just the second day of our Central American adventure and what can we say about it that will do it justice? Things just keep getting better. Today we awoke anchored in the lee of the beautiful islets of Bona and Otoque, right in the Gulf of Panama. This gulf has extremely productive waters due a local upwelling phenomenon—this basically means very rich waters. The phenomenon occurs here thanks to the trade winds that are coming from the northeast and blow across this low and narrow part of the Isthmus of Panama: when they reach the gulf they blow away all the warm water from the surface and this is replaced by cold waters from the depths. The latter is packed with nutrients that are vital for the growth of phytoplankton, which in turn serves as food for the zooplankton that will end up as prey for small fish that will in time be a source of food for a larger fish and so on and on. The rich waters in this area thus support a long and complex web of life, and we got to experience this today not in the water itself but above it and all around us. We used our fleet of Zodiacs to explore the great communities of sea birds that abound on these islets and are for the most part in full breeding swing: brown pelicans, blue-footed boobies, yellow-crowned night-herons, brown boobies and a peregrine falcon. Undoubtedly however, the most spectacular of them all were the magnificent frigatebirds, in particular the males in full sexual display with their fully-inflated red gular pouches giving the peculiar impression to onlookers that they are bearing red balloons on their beaks as gifts for the females.
The rest of the morning was spent learning to kayak in the calm waters of the bay or swimming from the stern. After a delicious lunch we lifted anchor for a long navigation to Coiba Island, and were blessed with calm seas and the company of brown boobies delighting us with their lance-like plunge dives. We were then treated to a presentation on basic tropical ecology, accompanied by spectacular photos, by National Geographic lecturer Randy Babb.
