Coiba Island National Park
The Coiba Island National Park (CNP) is located in the southernmost tip of the Gulf of Chiriquí, at 10 km. from the coast. The CNP is formed by an archipelago of 38 islands that total an area of 53,625 hectares and a total marine protected area of 216,500 hectares, the third largest in the Tropical Eastern Pacific after Galapagos and Malpelo.
The park includes a 160,700 hectare Special Zone of Marine Protection (SZMP). The PNC and the SZMP cover 60%of the continental platform and 90% of the islands in the Gulf of Chiriquí. Among the ecosystems in the marine protected areas are the coral reefs (1,703 hectares) and the Aníbal Bank, a submarine mountain where significant sports and commercial fishing activities are carried out.
Although currently Coiba is under less pressure than Galapagos and Cocos Island, illegal fishing, bad fishing practices and the growth in tourism are increasingly affecting its biodiversity. Being more protected from the effects of El Niño, its corals have not been so exposed to the bleaching and mortality as those in the Coco Island and Galapagos.
Given that it had been a prison since 1919, the island of Coiba has maintained a good forest cover that has allowed the mangrove swamps, coral reefs, beaches and other coastal marine ecosystems to remain in a good state of conservation. The barrier reef of Bahía Damas on Coiba island (136 hectares) is the second largest in the TEP. It includes 23 of the 26 coral species that form the Panamanian Pacific reefs, with 814 species of marine fish and 7943 of molluscs reported in the area.
Other endangered species are also protected in the CNP such as the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), the Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) and the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), as well as the Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) and blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) that are endangered, and the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), a vulnerable species.
