Our Playground

Thanks to the creation of a penal colony on Coiba (1919-2004) and the fact that few people dared come too close to the island with its resident criminals and political prisoners during this period, the island’s ancient forests and woodlands have been protected from loggers and poachers, leaving it seventy-five percent untouched and teeming with exotic birds and wildlife. The chain of islands is linked to Cocos and the Galapagos islands by the underwater Cocos Ridge and the surrounding ocean is just as untouched as the land. By turning Coiba into a National Park in 1991, the Panamanian government has succeeded in protecting the 760 different species of fish that can now be found there and in 2004 UNESCO declared Coiba National Park a World Heritage Site.

What Wikipedia tells us

Coiba is the largest island in Central America, with an area of 503 square kilometres (194 sq mi), off the Pacific coast of the Panamanian province of Veraguas (…)

Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute have proclaimed it an unparalleled destination for discovering new species. Rachel Collin, a Smithsonian project coordinator said: “It’s hard to imagine, while snorkeling around a tropical island that’s so close to the United States, that half the animals you see are unknown to science.”^[2]

Its unique location protects it from the damaging winds and other effects of El Niño, allowing it to sustain the uninterrupted evolution of new marine species including whale shark, […] sea turtles, angel rays and giant schools of fish. It is also the last refuge for a number of threatened terrestrial animals such as the crested eagle and several sub-species of agouti, possum and howler monkey (including a Coiba Island howler monkey).

The waters adjacent to the island are teeming with marine life. It is surrounded by one of the largest coral reefs on the Pacific coast of the Americas. The Indo-Pacific current through the Gulf of Chiriqui provides a unique dive environment. The warm current brings with it coral and many of the pacific tropical underwater life that you would not expect on the Pacific Coast of the Americas. Also with it come the larger fish/mammals such as humpback whales, sharks, whale sharks, orcas and more. Some 760 species of fish have been recorded here, including snappers, barracuda, amberjack, and three types of marlin.