Western Caribbean
125
Costa Rica and Panama
MAPse
The
Caribbean coast of Costa Rica is dominated
by wide areas of alluvial sediments and there
are considerable riverine inputs. These conditions
greatly inhibit the development of coral reefs, although
there are fringing communities at Limon (northwest of
Isla Uvita) and Punta Cahuita towards the south. Less
developed coral communities are also found from Puerto
Viejo to Punta Mona.
By contrast, Panama has a more complex coastline,
including rocky shores and two areas of extensive offshore
islands, and there is some important reef development,
notably at Bocas del Toro in the west and from Cristobal
eastwards. The eastern third of Panama's coastline lies in
a province known as San Bias or the Kuna Yala. From
Punta San Bias, the 175 kilometer long San Bias
Archipelago runs parallel to the coast with several
hundred small nearshore sand cays stretching to the
Colombian coastline.
These Caribbean coastlines lie well south of the main
westward flow of the Caribbean Current. This current sets
up two counter-clockwise eddies, the first producing
eastward currents flowing from southern Costa Rica and
around the Golfo de los Mosquitos, and the second
sweeping east along the San Bias islands. This area also
lies to the south of the main Caribbean hurricane belt and
there has only been one record of a hurricane along the
Panama coast in the last 120 years.
In the past three decades the Costa Rican coral
reefs have suffered a spectacular decline, undoubtedly
exacerbated by an increase in sedimentation caused by
deforestation on the mainland. This is particularly apparent at Cahuita, where live coral cover was 40 percent in
the late 1970s but had decreased to 11 percent by 1993,
while the cover of rubble and algae increased from 60
percent to 90 percent. By 1999, coral cover had declined
to about 3 percent. In the same period sediment load
increased significantly. Branching corals suffered particularly badly. Acropora cervicornis largely disappeared and
the abundance of Agaricia agariciles decreased by 15
percent, although it remained the dominant species.
Massive species were much less affected. For example,
while the abundance of Porites porites fell by 9 percent,
Sidemstrea siderea colonies increased in abundance by
1 6 percent. Part of this decline can be linked to a severe
earthquake in 1991 which affected the whole of the Costa
Rican Caribbean coast, in some places causing the reef
slope to slump. In Limon the reefs largely recovered from
this event, but they have not done so in Cahuita, possibly
Left: Densely packed houses in a Kuna village in the San Bias Islands, northeast Panama. The mainland coast remains
largely undeveloped. Right: The scattered reefs and occasional Islands of the San Bias Archipelago are some of the
region's best developed reefs.
125
Costa Rica and Panama
MAPse
The
Caribbean coast of Costa Rica is dominated
by wide areas of alluvial sediments and there
are considerable riverine inputs. These conditions
greatly inhibit the development of coral reefs, although
there are fringing communities at Limon (northwest of
Isla Uvita) and Punta Cahuita towards the south. Less
developed coral communities are also found from Puerto
Viejo to Punta Mona.
By contrast, Panama has a more complex coastline,
including rocky shores and two areas of extensive offshore
islands, and there is some important reef development,
notably at Bocas del Toro in the west and from Cristobal
eastwards. The eastern third of Panama's coastline lies in
a province known as San Bias or the Kuna Yala. From
Punta San Bias, the 175 kilometer long San Bias
Archipelago runs parallel to the coast with several
hundred small nearshore sand cays stretching to the
Colombian coastline.
These Caribbean coastlines lie well south of the main
westward flow of the Caribbean Current. This current sets
up two counter-clockwise eddies, the first producing
eastward currents flowing from southern Costa Rica and
around the Golfo de los Mosquitos, and the second
sweeping east along the San Bias islands. This area also
lies to the south of the main Caribbean hurricane belt and
there has only been one record of a hurricane along the
Panama coast in the last 120 years.
In the past three decades the Costa Rican coral
reefs have suffered a spectacular decline, undoubtedly
exacerbated by an increase in sedimentation caused by
deforestation on the mainland. This is particularly apparent at Cahuita, where live coral cover was 40 percent in
the late 1970s but had decreased to 11 percent by 1993,
while the cover of rubble and algae increased from 60
percent to 90 percent. By 1999, coral cover had declined
to about 3 percent. In the same period sediment load
increased significantly. Branching corals suffered particularly badly. Acropora cervicornis largely disappeared and
the abundance of Agaricia agariciles decreased by 15
percent, although it remained the dominant species.
Massive species were much less affected. For example,
while the abundance of Porites porites fell by 9 percent,
Sidemstrea siderea colonies increased in abundance by
1 6 percent. Part of this decline can be linked to a severe
earthquake in 1991 which affected the whole of the Costa
Rican Caribbean coast, in some places causing the reef
slope to slump. In Limon the reefs largely recovered from
this event, but they have not done so in Cahuita, possibly
Left: Densely packed houses in a Kuna village in the San Bias Islands, northeast Panama. The mainland coast remains
largely undeveloped. Right: The scattered reefs and occasional Islands of the San Bias Archipelago are some of the
region's best developed reefs.