Otoque & Bona Island
After celebrating Christmas Eve going through the last locks of the Panama Canal and spending the night in front of Panama City, the Sea Voyager began its navigation toward our next destination, the small archipelago of Otoque & Bona.
These island are located in the Bay of Panama, a so called 24/7 open supermarket for marine life. The Northeast Trade Winds blow over central Panama from the Caribbean side, as there are not high mountains to stop them, they enter the Bay of Panama sweeping away the superficial warmer waters, leaving an open space for the cold waters from the bottom to reach the surface. This is known as upwelling. These nutrient-rich waters enable the phytoplankton to produce a lot more food for the zooplankton which will feed a great number of anchovies and other smaller fish, which will be prey by bigger fish, dolphins, whales and other cetaceans. But the food chain does not end up there. As this feasting frenzy takes place, many of these fish are trying to escape from their water predators, jump out of the water not noticing that there is a whole fleet of birds waiting for them, pelican, boobies, gulls etc.
These birds, known as pelagic birds, are the opposite of land birds, in that they do not need to go back to mainland to breed, nest or feed. Among the several species of pelagic birds, today we had the opportunity to explore with our Zodiacs, which turn out to be important nesting sanctuaries for brown boobies, magnificent frigate birds and brown pelicans. Our guests were able to see up close a baby brown booby still wearing its down coat, a blue-footed booby, a green iguana and the red inflated pouch from the male frigate birds.
Around noon we left anchor and began our journey to another island, but on our way a group of pantropical spotted dolphins accompanied us for a while. The afternoon was spent in between swimming, snorkeling, beach coming or simple relaxation on the white sandy beach. As the sun was setting down we all got back on board for cocktails and recaps.
After celebrating Christmas Eve going through the last locks of the Panama Canal and spending the night in front of Panama City, the Sea Voyager began its navigation toward our next destination, the small archipelago of Otoque & Bona.
These island are located in the Bay of Panama, a so called 24/7 open supermarket for marine life. The Northeast Trade Winds blow over central Panama from the Caribbean side, as there are not high mountains to stop them, they enter the Bay of Panama sweeping away the superficial warmer waters, leaving an open space for the cold waters from the bottom to reach the surface. This is known as upwelling. These nutrient-rich waters enable the phytoplankton to produce a lot more food for the zooplankton which will feed a great number of anchovies and other smaller fish, which will be prey by bigger fish, dolphins, whales and other cetaceans. But the food chain does not end up there. As this feasting frenzy takes place, many of these fish are trying to escape from their water predators, jump out of the water not noticing that there is a whole fleet of birds waiting for them, pelican, boobies, gulls etc.
These birds, known as pelagic birds, are the opposite of land birds, in that they do not need to go back to mainland to breed, nest or feed. Among the several species of pelagic birds, today we had the opportunity to explore with our Zodiacs, which turn out to be important nesting sanctuaries for brown boobies, magnificent frigate birds and brown pelicans. Our guests were able to see up close a baby brown booby still wearing its down coat, a blue-footed booby, a green iguana and the red inflated pouch from the male frigate birds.
Around noon we left anchor and began our journey to another island, but on our way a group of pantropical spotted dolphins accompanied us for a while. The afternoon was spent in between swimming, snorkeling, beach coming or simple relaxation on the white sandy beach. As the sun was setting down we all got back on board for cocktails and recaps.
