New daily fees are being collected for anchoring within the watery boundaries of the national marine parks of both Costa Rica and Panama. The parks provide a string of about 20 anchorages — from jungle coves to uninhabited islands — that are important overnight stops for hundreds of cruising sailboats, motoryachts and sportfishers.

New Fees — Anchoring fees are now being collected at national parks in Costa Rica and Panama. Each year, hundreds of yachts stop overnight en route between Costa Rica and the Panama Canal, such as at this anchorage at Isla Parida near Marina Boca Chica and David Harbor in northwest Panama.

Previously, rangers at most of these parks were collecting only a per-person “park entrance fee” from anyone who stepped ashore. The entrance fees are either a daily fee or a one-time fee for as long as you stay in the park, and the amount varies from place to place, ranging from $3 U.S. per person to $30 U.S. for a yacht load.

Yatistas have been paying those fees whenever (or if ever) they landed their dinghies at the ranger station or whenever a park patrol craft happened to stop by their anchored boat with a cheery welcome. No yacht docks or moorings are available at any of the national marine parks on the Pacific sides of either Costa Rica or Panama. So, to get there by private boat, you have to anchor.

The new anchoring fees apply on a daily basis, whether you come ashore or not — and they vary hugely from park to park, from $15 a day at Costa Rica’s Bat Islands to a whopping $60 per day at Panama’s 20-mile-long Isla Coiba.

Coiba is beautiful, yes, but $60 per day for anchoring would be a deal breaker for me. Fortunately, several islands just outside the park have no anchoring fees: the Islas Secas about 25 nautical miles northwest of Isla Coiba, Isla Medidor right outside Bahia Honda, and Isla Cebaco about 25 nautical miles east of Isla Coiba.

Enforcement of the new anchoring fee is reported to be spotty. Although it’s been on the books for some time, rangers began collecting them about two months ago, and not all the parks have enough rangers, let alone patrol boats.

While eco-tourism booms in the tropics, more excursion vessels visit these national marine parks. Each tour boat is loaded with passengers who must pay extra to dive the coral reefs, hike the monkey trails and bask on pristine beaches.

Most yatistas are willing to pay the park entrance fees, hoping the dinero will go toward preserving these natural treasures. But where anchoring fees become excessive, such as at Isla Coiba, not many will stop.