Mochima National Park ( ) is located in the States of

Anzoátegui Anzoátegui State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beaches that attract many visitors. Its coast consists of a single beach approx ...

and

Sucre Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...

, on the northeastern coast of

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. The park covers 94,935 hectares and is made up of an exclusively marine area in its western sector (Anzoátegui State), a coastal marine area that includes the

Gulf of Santa Fé A gulf is a large inlet from an ocean or their seas into a landmass, larger and typically (though not always) with a narrower opening than a bay. The term was used traditionally for large, highly indented navigable bodies of salt water that a ...

and Mochima Bay, and a mountainous area that covers the Turimiquire Dam watershed (Sucre State). Mochima Park was created to protect the montane forests of the Turimiquire Range and the country's eastern

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

marine landscapes. However, this is one of the most threatened parks in Venezuela. Recently two large construction projects have altered the park permanently. A new national highway is being constructed between Puerto La Cruz and Cumana running directly through the park deforesting a 70+ meter wide swath of parkland along its entire course. Adding to this dilemma is a new natural gas pipeline being built to the east running virtually parallel to the new highway. Other threats stem from the fact that when the park was created, many human settlements were included inside park boundaries and The National Park Institute (INPARQUES) has been unable to manage the situation properly. Even though educational policies have improved community relations, INPARQUES is highly deficient in terms of park management and administration.

History

Mochima National Park was created on December 19, 1973. Named after the town of Mochima, it is one of a number of national parks along Venezuela's northeast Caribbean coastline. It was the second marine park in Venezuela and encompasses the entire shoreline between

Puerto La Cruz Puerto La Cruz () is a port city located in Anzoátegui State, in Venezuela. It is the seat of the Juan Antonio Sotillo Municipality. The city has road connections to the state capital, Barcelona, to Lecheria and to Guanta. Geography The cit ...

and

Cumaná Cumaná () is the capital city of Venezuela's Sucre State. It is located east of Caracas. Cumaná was one of the first cities founded by Spain in the mainland Americas and is the oldest continuously-inhabited Hispanic-established city in Sout ...

plus 32 islands just offshore.

Geography

This coast is a mountainous zone with beaches, gulfs and inlets of extraordinary beauty. Because of various micro-climates, some areas have gigantic cliffs nearly devoid of vegetation dropping into the water while others are lush with jungle vegetation and sandy beaches. Many small towns have sprung up along the 50 km between the cities on either side (Puerto La Cruz and Cumaná).

Climate

Year-round temperatures range between 20 and 26 °C. Coastal climate has high temperatures and constant

trade winds The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere ...

from November until May, while it is a bit cooler with more humidity from June to October.

Size

The park measures .

Fauna and flora

Marine waters in the park are rich in

cetacean Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively c ...

diversities, including such as

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

Bryde's whale Bryde's whale ( ), or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises three species of rorqual and possibly four. The "complex" means the number and classification remain unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research. The c ...

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the Genus (biology), genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the s ...

pilot whale Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus ''Globicephala''. The two Extant taxon, extant species are the long-finned pilot whale (''G. melas'') and the short-finned pilot whale (''G. macrorhynchus''). The two are not readily distinguish ...

s, and several species of

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

s. The turtle grass present in Mochima Bay provides a good environment for many gastropods and mollusks such as Eared ark clam, Tiger lucine, Buttonsnail, and Turkey wing clam.

Gallery

File:Mochima.jpg, Beach in Mochima Park File:Danza en el mar.jpg,

Long-beaked common dolphin The common dolphin (''Delphinus delphis'') is the most abundant cetacean in the world, with a global population of about six million. Despite this fact and its vernacular name, the common dolphin is not thought of as the archetypal dolphin, with ...

s nearby Isla de Plata File:Lanchas en el ambarcadero de Mochima II.jpg, Boats in Mochima Park File:Leguan im Wasser anagoria.JPG File:Venezuela - Mochima - Playa Manzanilla.jpg, Manzanilla Beach File:Playa Puinare, PN Mochima, edo. Anzoátegui.JPG, Puinare Island File:Mochima, Venezuela (12467569625).jpg File:Playa Punta la Cruz - Mochima - Venezuela.jpg File:Sol y palmeras.jpg File:Peñon en el Parque Nacional Mochima.JPG File:Parque Nacional Mochima2.JPG File:Rayos de Sol en Mochima.jpg File:Orilla de Playa en Isla del parque Nacional Mochima..jpg File:La Piscina The Pool (2935982391).jpg File:Parque Nacional Mochima pequeña Isla.jpg File:Mochima paraiso Venezolano 4.jpg File:Piedras en Isla el faro Parque Mochima.jpg

References

External links

* http://www.parkswatch.org/parkprofile.php?l=eng&country=ven&park=monp {{authority control National parks of Venezuela Marine reserves Protected areas established in 1973 Geography of Anzoátegui Geography of Sucre (state) 1973 establishments in Venezuela