Coiba National Park - A Hope Spot
Coiba: A Hope Spot for the Pacific
Coiba is more than a national park and more than a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also part of a global conservation movement built around a simple idea: some places in the ocean are so important that protecting them can help restore the health of the wider sea.
Mission Blue, the marine conservation organization founded by legendary oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, identifies places like Coiba as Hope Spots.
These are marine environments recognized for their exceptional biodiversity, ecological importance, scientific value or role in connecting larger ocean ecosystems.
Coiba fits that description remarkably well.
What Is a Hope Spot?
A Hope Spot is an ocean area considered critically important to marine health, biodiversity or ecological connectivity.
Some Hope Spots are already legally protected. Others are places where stronger protection is needed.
The concept was created by Mission Blue to draw international attention to marine areas that can play an important role in protecting and restoring ocean ecosystems.
Hope Spots are supported by scientists, conservationists, local communities and advocates who work to increase awareness and encourage effective protection.
The idea is not simply to identify beautiful places.
A Hope Spot should represent somewhere whose protection can make a meaningful difference to the ocean.
Mission Blue and Sylvia Earle
Mission Blue was created by Dr. Sylvia Earle, one of the world’s best-known ocean scientists, explorers and conservation advocates.
After decades spent studying and exploring the sea, Earle used her 2009 TED Prize to call for a global network of protected marine places.
She called them Hope Spots.
The vision was ambitious: identify critical parts of the ocean, build public support around them and help turn scientific knowledge into real protection.
That idea has since grown into a worldwide network of marine conservation initiatives.
Why Coiba?
There are many reasons Coiba attracted Mission Blue’s attention.
The national park protects an extraordinary combination of islands, tropical forest, coral communities, rocky reefs, underwater banks and open Pacific habitat.
UNESCO recognizes the World Heritage property as habitat for approximately 760 species of marine fish, 33 species of sharks and 20 species of cetaceans.
But biodiversity alone doesn’t tell the entire story.
Coiba also occupies an important geographic position within the Tropical Eastern Pacific, connecting marine ecosystems used by highly mobile animals including sharks, rays, sea turtles, whales and pelagic fish.
A Link Across the Tropical Eastern Pacific
Coiba is part of a much larger ocean landscape stretching across the Pacific waters of Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador.
Within that region are several of the world’s most famous marine protected areas, including:
- Coiba in Panama;
- Cocos Island in Costa Rica;
- Malpelo in Colombia; and
- the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador.
These places may appear isolated on a map, but marine animals routinely travel between them.
For sharks, whales, turtles and pelagic fish, the ocean between protected areas can be just as important as the protected areas themselves.
That connectivity is one of the major reasons Coiba matters internationally.
Coiba’s Original Hope Spot Story
Mission Blue’s relationship with Coiba stretches back more than a decade.
In the early 2010s, Mission Blue organized an expedition involving scientists, conservation leaders, divers and researchers from organizations including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
The goal was to better understand Coiba’s marine environment and draw international attention to the need for strong protection.
The expedition explored shallow reefs as well as deeper areas that ordinary scuba divers could not easily reach.
One location received particular attention: Hannibal Bank.
Exploring Hannibal Bank
Hannibal Bank is a massive underwater formation west of Isla Coiba.
It rises from deep Pacific water without ever breaking the surface.
Currents interacting with the bank create productive conditions that attract fish, sharks and other marine animals.
During Mission Blue’s Coiba expedition, researchers used scuba equipment and a deep-diving submersible to explore parts of Hannibal Bank far below normal recreational diving depths.
At the time, some deeper portions of the bank had received very little direct scientific observation.
The expedition helped reveal just how biologically significant this underwater landscape could be.
Seeing the Ocean Beyond Scuba Depth
Most scuba diving takes place within a relatively thin layer near the ocean’s surface.
Below that lies an enormous environment that remains largely invisible to ordinary visitors.
Submersibles allow scientists to descend hundreds of feet into this deeper world while directly observing marine life and underwater geology.
At places such as Hannibal Bank, these tools can reveal steep slopes, rocky structure and deep-water communities that conventional surveys might miss.
Understanding those deeper habitats is important because they are connected to the same marine ecosystem used by fish and predators seen in shallower water.
Tagging Sharks
Another major component of research around Coiba has involved tagging sharks.
Electronic tags allow scientists to follow animals after they disappear from view.
Receivers placed throughout the ocean can detect tagged animals when they pass nearby, helping researchers determine where they travel, which habitats they use and how frequently they move between protected areas.
That information can reveal something impossible to understand from a single dive or boat survey.
A shark seen at Coiba today may be somewhere completely different weeks or months later.
Following Whale Sharks Across the Pacific
Whale-shark research around Coiba has provided an especially dramatic example of marine connectivity.
A female whale shark tagged near Coiba was later tracked traveling more than 20,000 kilometers across the Pacific Ocean.
Its journey demonstrated just how enormous the home range of a migratory marine animal can be.
A national park may protect that animal for a portion of its journey, but effective conservation also depends on what happens once it leaves.
This is why researchers increasingly think in terms of marine corridors rather than isolated protected areas.
A Corridor for Sharks and Other Migratory Animals
Satellite and acoustic tracking have revealed that sharks, rays, turtles and other animals can move between distant oceanic islands and seamounts.
These underwater features act almost like stepping stones across the Pacific.
Animals may use one location for feeding, another for reproduction and another as part of a migration route.
Protecting those connections can therefore be just as important as protecting a famous reef or island.
Coiba’s position makes it a particularly important part of this Eastern Pacific network.
The Cordillera de Coiba
The conservation story surrounding Coiba has expanded far beyond the original national park.
South of Coiba lies the Cordillera de Coiba, an enormous offshore region containing submarine mountain ranges and deep-water ecosystems.
Unlike Isla Coiba and the familiar islands of the national park, much of this landscape exists entirely beneath the Pacific.
Seamounts rise from the deep ocean floor, creating complex habitat where currents can concentrate nutrients and marine life.
Many of these underwater environments remain poorly explored.
A Huge Expansion of Marine Protection
In 2021, Panama dramatically expanded the Cordillera de Coiba Marine Protected Area.
The protected area grew from approximately 17,000 square kilometers to nearly 68,000 square kilometers.
The expansion represented an enormous increase in the amount of Panama’s Pacific waters under formal protection.
It also strengthened ecological connections between Panama and neighboring marine protected areas throughout the Tropical Eastern Pacific.
Mission Blue recognized the expansion as an important step forward for the Coiba Hope Spot conservation vision.
Protecting an Invisible Mountain Range
The Cordillera de Coiba is fascinating because most people will never see it.
There are no beaches, palm trees or forest trails across most of this protected landscape.
Its defining features are underwater mountains.
Seamounts can influence ocean currents and create areas of unusual biological productivity.
They may provide feeding habitat, migration routes and refuge for marine mammals, sharks, billfish, sea turtles and countless species that remain poorly documented.
Protecting these environments means recognizing that some of the ocean’s most important landscapes are completely hidden from human view.
A Management Plan for the Cordillera
Designating a marine protected area is only the first step.
Rules, monitoring and enforcement are required to turn a legal boundary into meaningful conservation.
Following the expansion of the Cordillera de Coiba, Panama approved a management plan for the protected area in 2022.
The plan was developed with scientific input and public consultation and provides a framework for managing this enormous offshore region.
Its creation demonstrates an important evolution in marine conservation: protection is increasingly being planned on the scale of entire ecosystems rather than individual islands.
Exploring the Cordillera for the First Time
Shortly after the protected area was expanded, an international scientific expedition set out to explore the Cordillera de Coiba’s largely unknown seamounts.
Researchers from Panama and several other countries participated in the expedition.
The objective was straightforward but ambitious: explore, discover and learn what lives there.
Scientists cannot effectively protect an ecosystem they do not understand.
Exploration therefore becomes the first step toward conservation.
The Role of the Smithsonian
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has played an especially important role in understanding Coiba and Panama’s Pacific ecosystems.
Smithsonian researchers have studied sharks, whale sharks, coral reefs, fish communities, island ecology and marine connectivity throughout the region.
Marine biologist Dr. Héctor Guzmán has been closely associated with research and conservation efforts around Coiba and served as the Hope Spot Champion connected with the Cordillera de Coiba.
Scientific research like this provides evidence that governments can use when deciding where protected areas should be placed and how they should be managed.
Science Before Protection
One of the most important lessons of the Hope Spot concept is that conservation should be guided by science.
It is not enough to protect an arbitrary patch of ocean.
Researchers need to understand:
- where animals feed and reproduce;
- which habitats support juvenile fish;
- where sharks and turtles migrate;
- which reefs or seamounts function as replenishment areas;
- how ocean currents connect distant ecosystems;
- where fishing pressure is greatest; and
- which habitats are most vulnerable to climate change.
That knowledge allows protection to be directed toward the places where it can accomplish the most.
Coiba and UNESCO
The Hope Spot designation complements another important layer of international recognition.
In 2005, Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
UNESCO recognizes Coiba’s extraordinary biodiversity, evolutionary importance and role as an ecological link within the Tropical Eastern Pacific.
The World Heritage property encompasses approximately 430,825 hectares of terrestrial and marine habitat.
Together, UNESCO recognition and the Hope Spot movement have helped draw international attention to both the extraordinary value of Coiba and the continuing need to protect it.
A Hope Spot Does Not Mean the Work Is Finished
The word hope can sound as though everything is already going well.
That is not what a Hope Spot means.
Many Hope Spots are selected precisely because they face significant threats or require stronger protection.
Coiba continues to face challenges including illegal fishing, fishing pressure, growing tourism and climate change.
UNESCO continues to monitor the state of conservation of the World Heritage property and has repeatedly called for strengthened fisheries management and enforcement.
Hope therefore comes from the possibility of protecting Coiba—not from assuming that protection is guaranteed.
Fishing and the Future of Coiba
Fishing is one of the central issues connecting the original Mission Blue expeditions with today’s conservation work.
Large sharks, groupers, snappers, tuna and other valuable fish species can be especially vulnerable to heavy fishing pressure.
Fishing can also have ecological effects far beyond the individual animals removed.
Large predators influence the behavior and abundance of other species throughout marine food webs.
Protecting healthy predator populations is therefore one of the most important indicators of a functioning marine ecosystem.
Learn More About Marine Conservation →
Why Hannibal Bank Matters So Much
Hannibal Bank has repeatedly appeared at the center of Coiba conservation discussions because it represents both extraordinary abundance and extraordinary vulnerability.
The bank functions as important marine habitat and a replenishment area for commercially valuable fish.
At the same time, its reputation for large fish historically made it attractive to fishermen.
UNESCO has repeatedly encouraged stronger no-take protection for the Hannibal Bank Habitat Protection Zone.
This illustrates a recurring challenge in marine conservation:
The places that contain the most fish are often exactly the places people most want to fish.
Climate Change
Protection from fishing cannot shield Coiba from every threat.
Climate change is altering ocean temperature, chemistry and ecological conditions across the planet.
Coral communities can experience bleaching during periods of unusually warm water, while changes in currents and productivity may affect where marine animals find food.
Sea-level rise and changing weather patterns can also alter coastal environments.
These global pressures make local protection even more important.
An ecosystem free from unnecessary local stress has a better opportunity to adapt and recover when environmental conditions change.
Hope Through Connectivity
One of the most encouraging developments in Eastern Pacific conservation is the growing recognition that individual protected areas must work together.
Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador have increasingly cooperated around marine connectivity in the Tropical Eastern Pacific.
UNESCO has also encouraged continued work toward a transboundary marine biosphere reserve linking the World Heritage properties associated with Coiba, Cocos, Malpelo and the Galápagos.
The concept reflects the biology of the animals themselves.
A hammerhead shark does not know when it has crossed from Panama into international water or entered another country’s exclusive economic zone.
Conservation must therefore learn to operate on the same geographic scale as wildlife.
The Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor
The broader regional conservation initiative is often known as the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor.
This collaboration brings together Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador around the conservation and sustainable management of connected marine ecosystems.
It encompasses some of the most biologically important ocean environments in the world.
By expanding protected areas and improving connectivity between them, countries can create a network that offers migrating wildlife greater protection throughout its journey.
Why Seamounts Matter
The expansion of marine protection around Coiba has also helped bring greater attention to seamounts.
These underwater mountains can rise thousands of meters from the ocean floor without reaching the surface.
Currents flowing around them can concentrate nutrients and plankton, creating feeding opportunities for larger animals.
Some seamounts may also function as orientation points or stepping stones for migratory species traveling through otherwise featureless open ocean.
Scientists are still discovering how these deep ecosystems function.
Protecting them before they are fully exploited offers a rare opportunity to conserve something before it has been seriously damaged.
Exploration Is Still Part of the Story
Despite decades of scientific research, much of the marine world around Coiba remains poorly understood.
Deep reefs, underwater mountains and offshore habitats are difficult and expensive to explore.
New technologies—including submersibles, remotely operated vehicles, satellite tags and acoustic tracking systems—allow scientists to investigate environments that were previously inaccessible.
Every expedition adds another piece to the puzzle.
And sometimes those discoveries change how entire areas are protected.
A Laboratory for Marine Science
Coiba’s value to science extends far beyond sharks.
Researchers study coral resilience, fish populations, deep-water ecosystems, ocean currents, marine migration and the effects of climate change.
The park is also connected to research on terrestrial evolution and endemic island wildlife.
This combination makes Coiba something remarkably rare: a protected landscape where scientists can study connections between rainforest, island evolution, coastal habitat and open ocean ecology within the same region.
Tourism and the Hope Spot
Visitors have an important role in Coiba’s conservation future.
Scuba divers who encounter sharks and enormous schools of fish quickly understand the economic value of keeping those animals alive.
Snorkelers who experience healthy marine habitat become advocates for reef protection.
Wildlife tours create livelihoods based on observing animals rather than extracting them.
Responsible tourism can therefore help turn conservation into an economic asset for surrounding communities.
But that only works when tourism itself is carefully managed.
Responsible Exploration
Coiba’s Hope Spot status should encourage visitors to treat the park differently from an ordinary vacation destination.
Wildlife should not be chased, touched or fed.
Coral should never be stood upon or collected.
Boats should avoid damaging reefs with anchors and should maintain appropriate distances from whales and dolphins.
Visitors should respect temporary closures and restricted areas even when those restrictions prevent access to a famous beach, reef or dive site.
Every protected area depends partly on the behavior of the people who enter it.
Hope Is Something You Do
The most important idea behind Mission Blue’s Hope Spots may be contained in the name itself.
Hope is not the same as optimism.
Optimism assumes things will turn out well.
Hope creates a reason to act so that things can turn out well.
Coiba still contains extraordinary forests, sharks, reefs, whales, sea turtles and vast areas of relatively wild Pacific habitat.
That makes conservation worthwhile because there is still so much left to save.
From Coiba to the Open Pacific
The story that began around Isla Coiba now stretches far beyond the island.
It extends west to Hannibal Bank, south across the Cordillera de Coiba, and outward toward Cocos, Malpelo and the Galápagos.
It follows whale sharks across thousands of kilometers of Pacific Ocean and hammerheads between isolated underwater mountains.
It connects fishermen, scientists, park rangers, governments, dive operators and visitors who may never meet but whose choices affect the same ecosystem.
That is what makes Coiba such a powerful Hope Spot.
It reminds us that an island can be important far beyond its shoreline.
A Reason for Hope
Much of the world’s ocean has been altered by fishing, pollution, habitat loss and climate change.
Coiba has not escaped those pressures.
But enormous areas of natural habitat remain, marine predators still inhabit its waters, new species continue to be studied and governments are protecting increasingly large areas of the surrounding Pacific.
Scientific research is revealing connections that were invisible only a generation ago.
Protected areas are expanding to follow those discoveries.
That doesn’t mean Coiba’s future is guaranteed.
It means its future is still ours to influence.
And that is exactly what a Hope Spot is supposed to represent.
Explore Coiba’s Conservation Story
Discover more about the environment, wildlife and conservation efforts that make Coiba one of the most important protected marine landscapes in the Tropical Eastern Pacific.
The Environment of Coiba → | Marine Conservation → | Hannibal Bank → | Scuba Diving →
