Otoque & Bona Islands, Panama Bay
After a whole night of sailing, the Sun and a still full Moon welcomed the Sea Voyager to the Bay of Panama. It took us around 191 nautical miles sailing from Coiba Island to our destination for today; a very isolated archipelago, conformed of three islands of which just one is inhabited by a small community of around 300 fisherman families.
These three islands are an important pelagic-bird nesting and feeding site. One reason for the presence of such large seabird colonies is because of the very low number of predators that live here and a second reason is because of the very nutritious waters that surround the islands. This nutrient-rich water comes from the deep bottom of the ocean, and as these waters rise the phyto-plankton and zoo-plankton can explode in numbers as the waters now are exposed to sunlight. The replacement of the warm, nutrient-poor water for cool, nutritious water is known as upwelling, and the Bay of Panama is a major site for this process.
The three islands host different species of seabirds, brown boobies, brown pelicans and magnificent frigatebirds. All of them in gregarious colonies, the pelicans and frigatebirds like to build their twig-nests in the trees, while the boobies nest more on ledges or just on the ground. All these seabirds take quite long to develop if we compare them with land birds. For instance, the frigatebirds need an incubation time of 55 days and the fledging period can take up to six months, after that the juvenile will remain with the mother for almost a full year.
We had great luck in finding a brown booby chick, still wearing its down coat. The boobies take 45 days of incubation and around four months before fledging. All these seabirds require a couple of years to acquire their adult plumage and 3-5 years to be sexually mature, but their lifespan can extend up to 20 years.
After this up close and personal experience among these birds’ colonies, we started our navigation toward the Panama Canal entrance. Around 5pm we welcomed our Panama Canal pilot with a refreshing piña colada & strawberry daiquiri in one hand and delicious ceviche (marinated fish) in the other. And as a day great closed, we began our transit through the Canal as the sun was setting down.
After a whole night of sailing, the Sun and a still full Moon welcomed the Sea Voyager to the Bay of Panama. It took us around 191 nautical miles sailing from Coiba Island to our destination for today; a very isolated archipelago, conformed of three islands of which just one is inhabited by a small community of around 300 fisherman families.
These three islands are an important pelagic-bird nesting and feeding site. One reason for the presence of such large seabird colonies is because of the very low number of predators that live here and a second reason is because of the very nutritious waters that surround the islands. This nutrient-rich water comes from the deep bottom of the ocean, and as these waters rise the phyto-plankton and zoo-plankton can explode in numbers as the waters now are exposed to sunlight. The replacement of the warm, nutrient-poor water for cool, nutritious water is known as upwelling, and the Bay of Panama is a major site for this process.
The three islands host different species of seabirds, brown boobies, brown pelicans and magnificent frigatebirds. All of them in gregarious colonies, the pelicans and frigatebirds like to build their twig-nests in the trees, while the boobies nest more on ledges or just on the ground. All these seabirds take quite long to develop if we compare them with land birds. For instance, the frigatebirds need an incubation time of 55 days and the fledging period can take up to six months, after that the juvenile will remain with the mother for almost a full year.
We had great luck in finding a brown booby chick, still wearing its down coat. The boobies take 45 days of incubation and around four months before fledging. All these seabirds require a couple of years to acquire their adult plumage and 3-5 years to be sexually mature, but their lifespan can extend up to 20 years.
After this up close and personal experience among these birds’ colonies, we started our navigation toward the Panama Canal entrance. Around 5pm we welcomed our Panama Canal pilot with a refreshing piña colada & strawberry daiquiri in one hand and delicious ceviche (marinated fish) in the other. And as a day great closed, we began our transit through the Canal as the sun was setting down.
