Qualla: Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park

Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ulughmuztagh, CC BY-SA 3.0. Most national parks are meant to be walked through. This one is meant to be swum through. The Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park covers 1,200 square kilometers of Caribbean seafloor off Colombia's coast, and the vast majority of it lies beneath the surface -- coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests that together form the largest and most developed coral platform in the continental Colombian Caribbean. In 2009, it drew 318,473 visitors, making it the most visited national park in Colombia. Most of those visitors arrived by boat from Cartagena, just 45 kilometers to the northeast, and slipped beneath the surface into a world of brain corals, sea fans, and hawksbill turtles gliding through water that filters sunlight into shades of green and violet.

Image: Ulughmuztagh | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park: Reef by Decree

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Uhkabu, CC BY-SA 3.0. The park began small and grew in concentric rings of protection. It was established in 1977 to safeguard a single coral reef on one of the Islas del Rosario, originally covering just 178 square kilometers. In 1988, an additional 195 square kilometers were incorporated. Then, in 1...

Image: Uhkabu | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park: A City Beneath the Surface

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ulughmuztagh, CC BY-SA 3.0. The reefs within the park range from depths of one to thirty meters, and they host 167 documented fish species, 18 of which are classified as endangered. Loggerhead sea turtles, green sea turtles, and the critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle nest and feed in these waters. C...

Image: Ulughmuztagh | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park: The River's Shadow

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Uhkabu, CC BY-SA 3.0. The park's greatest threat arrives not from the open ocean but from the land. The Canal del Dique, a waterway connecting the Magdalena River to the Bay of Cartagena, carries freshwater and sediment from Colombia's interior directly into the park's waters. The Magdalena drains nea...

Image: Uhkabu | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park: One Million Corals

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ulughmuztagh, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 2022, the Colombian government launched "One Million Corals for Colombia," the largest ocean reef restoration project in the Americas. The effort is centered in part on the Rosario and San Bernardo park, where teams place ceramic discs called "cookies" seeded with micro-fragme...

Image: Ulughmuztagh | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park: Turquoise and Consequence

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ulughmuztagh, CC BY-SA 3.0. For most visitors, the park is a day trip from Cartagena -- a boat ride through the bay, a snorkeling session over shallow reef, lunch on a wooden platform above the water, then back to the city by dusk. That simplicity belies the complexity of what lies beneath. The park protect...

Image: Ulughmuztagh | CC BY-SA 3.0