Bona & Otoque Islands, Bay of Panama
Wow! What a way to start our second day here in Panama. An hour before breakfast when we were on our way to anchor, we happened to run into a pod of spotted dolphins; there must have been about a hundred. There were hundreds of sea birds as well escorting the dolphins in a feeding frenzy in which there were boobies, frigatebirds, terns, and pelicans. And that wasn’t all; we also had a brief look at a Bryde’s whale. The omens were good.
After we anchored and had breakfast we were ready to go for a Zodiac cruise around two islands known as Otoque and Bona in which we were able to get good looks at sea birds. Some of them were nesting, and some were in the middle of courtship like the beautiful male frigatebirds displaying their fully inflated and bright red gular pouches and clapping their beaks to attract the females.
Later in the day, as we headed towards Isla Coiba, we were visited by even more wildlife. Two pods of spotted dolphins joined the ship, riding on the bow wave and playing on the side wake before disappearing astern. Their antics delighted us as we made our way along the coast of Panama occasionally passing through patches of red tide.
And the reason why we saw all of this wildlife is thanks to an upwelling that takes place here in the Bay of Panama where the trade winds are capable of blowing across the isthmus of Panama from the Caribbean to the Pacific through one of the lowest passes of the mountain range. They reach the bay with enough strength to blow all the warm surface water out to sea and replace it with cold water rich with nutrients. These nutrients support blooms of planktonic organisms. And then the food chain begins, so small fish feed off the plankton-like creatures and larger fish will take the smaller ones. Meanwhile, these larger fish are fed on by even larger fish and dolphins. It was all so perfectly designed and we enjoyed being part of nature’s complexity.
Wow! What a way to start our second day here in Panama. An hour before breakfast when we were on our way to anchor, we happened to run into a pod of spotted dolphins; there must have been about a hundred. There were hundreds of sea birds as well escorting the dolphins in a feeding frenzy in which there were boobies, frigatebirds, terns, and pelicans. And that wasn’t all; we also had a brief look at a Bryde’s whale. The omens were good.
After we anchored and had breakfast we were ready to go for a Zodiac cruise around two islands known as Otoque and Bona in which we were able to get good looks at sea birds. Some of them were nesting, and some were in the middle of courtship like the beautiful male frigatebirds displaying their fully inflated and bright red gular pouches and clapping their beaks to attract the females.
Later in the day, as we headed towards Isla Coiba, we were visited by even more wildlife. Two pods of spotted dolphins joined the ship, riding on the bow wave and playing on the side wake before disappearing astern. Their antics delighted us as we made our way along the coast of Panama occasionally passing through patches of red tide.
And the reason why we saw all of this wildlife is thanks to an upwelling that takes place here in the Bay of Panama where the trade winds are capable of blowing across the isthmus of Panama from the Caribbean to the Pacific through one of the lowest passes of the mountain range. They reach the bay with enough strength to blow all the warm surface water out to sea and replace it with cold water rich with nutrients. These nutrients support blooms of planktonic organisms. And then the food chain begins, so small fish feed off the plankton-like creatures and larger fish will take the smaller ones. Meanwhile, these larger fish are fed on by even larger fish and dolphins. It was all so perfectly designed and we enjoyed being part of nature’s complexity.
