My wife’s cousin was visiting Panama yesterday, and wanted to see the Panama Canal up close, and personal, so I took advantage of the opportunity to hopefully cast a net in the largest freshwater body of water here, from a Panga (small wooden boat), something I seldom spend my limited retirement income on.
A 2 hour jaunt around the lake usually runs at least $50 per person (including the drive from Panama city.
We started the 2 hour tour of Lago Gatun, the huge, semi-artificial reservoir close to Panama City. Beginning after the Mira flores Loch, on the south end, the lake stretches north to the lochs near Colon, close to the Caribbean.
As soon as we got on the boat, I asked the captain to take us where Chogorros (small to moderately sized cichlids) and chupapierdras (plecos) could be found, he said they have mostly been driven out to smaller rivers, by invasive fish species, saying the only thing left in the let are, Cichla (what he calls sargentos), Robalos (Centropomus) and African Tilapia. There are a number of endemic tetras left (what he called sardina’s) but they are the most common fish found here, in all rivers and often plagued with Lernaea parasites.
None of these are fish I was after, so I hung the net up.
Above is a young Robalo we caught in a river, below, the size sport fishermen seek in the lake.
Although my net never got wet, a camera was used, and while no fish were caught, got some interesting shots of wildlife living on the islands that dot the lake.
Tiny bats, asleep on the underside of a tree.
A marmoset above Titi panameneo, and white faced Capushin below
A 2 hour jaunt around the lake usually runs at least $50 per person (including the drive from Panama city.
We started the 2 hour tour of Lago Gatun, the huge, semi-artificial reservoir close to Panama City. Beginning after the Mira flores Loch, on the south end, the lake stretches north to the lochs near Colon, close to the Caribbean.
As soon as we got on the boat, I asked the captain to take us where Chogorros (small to moderately sized cichlids) and chupapierdras (plecos) could be found, he said they have mostly been driven out to smaller rivers, by invasive fish species, saying the only thing left in the let are, Cichla (what he calls sargentos), Robalos (Centropomus) and African Tilapia. There are a number of endemic tetras left (what he called sardina’s) but they are the most common fish found here, in all rivers and often plagued with Lernaea parasites.
None of these are fish I was after, so I hung the net up.
Above is a young Robalo we caught in a river, below, the size sport fishermen seek in the lake.
Although my net never got wet, a camera was used, and while no fish were caught, got some interesting shots of wildlife living on the islands that dot the lake.
Tiny bats, asleep on the underside of a tree.
A marmoset above Titi panameneo, and white faced Capushin below
