Did you know?
Many species of fish, shrimp, mollusks, and crabs depend heavily on the mangrove estuaries as spawning and nursery grounds, which in turn support the functioning of the marine system that includes coral reefs, turtles, whales, and dolphins.
The Pablo Barrios de Pedasi Refuge has estuaries, dunes, mangroves and tropical dry forests that provide important nesting and feeding habitat for an enormous variety of species. We invite you to learn more about the scientific studies investigating the ecology of the refuge.
Scientific Studies
Karly Urriola (2017)
Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology
Thesis: "Sighting frequency and areas of ecological importance of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in Pedasi, Los Santos province, Panama".
Download the thesis here
Garcés, H., Batista, A. & Sánchez, N. (2020)
Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology
Thesis: "Characterization of sea turtle nesting sites in Playa Lagarto, Pedasi, Los Santos Province, Panama".
Download the thesis here
Gricel García (2018)
B.Sc. in Biology with a concentration in Marine Biology and Limnology.
Thesis: "Sighting frequency of the dolphin Stenella attenuata (Gray, 1846) in the marine refuges of Pedasi, Los Santos, Panama".
Download the thesis here
Marie-Eve Lemaire y Cristina Venegas (2021)
McGill University Interns
Report: "Investigating the Threat of Intensifying Ecotourism Development to Fish and Mangrove Health within Coastal Dune Ecosystems".
Download report here
Want to get involved?
Visit our Public Programs page for more information about citizen science monitoring tours on the refuge.
If you see birds at the refuge, we invite you to report them on the eBird page. More than 90 species have already been reported!