Bocas del Toro

Friday, October 10, 2014 Unknown 0 Comments

Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama

A beautiful archipelago known for its crystal clean waters and beautiful beaches. Bocas is a highly popular tourist destination that offers cheap diving certifications and a good night life. The years of unchecked development has played its toll on the island. With little to no infrastructure there is no means to handle the heaps of trash and sewage left behind by thousands of visitors. Trash that isn’t thrown into the ocean is collected and burnt in the mountains. I only know this because during a bikeride over the center of the island, I heard an explosion. Turns out they burn everrrrything. The reef has certainly felt the effects of runoff and bad divers. Most inner reef sites had coral in bad condition, limited fish, but still had some good macro invertebrate life. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) has a facility on Isla Colon of Bocas and is currently working on many of these issues. 

Though there are a plethora of environmental problems, Bocas was very kind to us for the week we were there. 



A coral mound. 


Pederson Cleaner Shrimp (Ancylomenes pedersoni) 

A Menacing Beauty. 

"The introduction of lionfish into the Atlantic Ocean is now recognized as one of the major ecological disasters of the last two decades. Today lionfish are found in nearly all marine-habitat types along the Southeast United States, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean. Densities of lionfish have surpassed some native reef fish in many locations. The ecological impacts of this invasion are far-reaching — from disruptions to the structure and function of reef communities to impacts on commercial fishing and the tourism industry."- James Morris
Lionfish are generalist predators that voraciously devour native reef fishes. Introduced to the Caribbean in the 1990's around Florida and first seen in Panama in 2009, these fish have little to no natural predators in their new introduced zone. They have become highly invasive and been documented reducing native reef fish populations by 90% (STRI). Programs now exist to eliminate their enormous populations. Not easily caught on hook and line, lionfish are almost always caught in fishing derbies. A derby can see up to 1,400 fish caught in a single day. But, this can be easily replaced by the 200,000 eggs a single female can lay in a month.




 Banded coral shrimp (Stenopus hispidus)

She feeds by waving her antennae to attract fish. When the fish arrives, she will remove all the parasites from the fish's skin and eat them.


 The entrance to La Gruta on Isla Colon. A cave of religious and ecological importance. Home to thousands of bats which roosts in its limestone rocks. A donation of $1 is asked to enter the cave which locals use to manage the cave.


"Daly and Myers (1967) and Myers and Daly (1983) initially characterized the great variation in color and patterning in Oophaga pumilio in the Bocas del Toro archipelago. This has sparked an incredible amount of research on sexual selection, behavior, and genetics in this species (Prohl et al 2007, Prohl 2002, Rudh et al 2007, Maan and Cummings 2008, Siddiqi et al 2004, Summers et al 1997, Summers and Kennedy 2004, Tazzyman and Iwasa 2010, Wang and Summers 2009, Wang and Summers 2010)." - STRI

Trash that is not thrown in the ocean makes its way to the mountains where it is weighed (left side of the picture) and then burnt (right side of the picture). In the 30 seconds I was there there were two explosions. Apparently, they burn almost anything. 

 

Playa Estrella "Starfish Beach" near Playas del Drago on Isla Colon. A highly tourist beach where thousands of starfish

Photo taken in Isla Bastimentos National Marine Park. Created in 1988 and Panama's first national marine park.