Trip Reports

This has definitely been a whale shark-tastic trip!!! The number of whale shark sightings was just insane, we saw them in different dives nearly every day!!! But that wasn't the only great experience that Cocos Island had in store for us…

After a calm crossing to the Island we did our first dives at Manuelita. Even with the slight drop in visibility our first dives were epic. The lucky yellow team saw their first whale shark of the week swimming alongside a manta! The second day was time to dive Punta Maria, where we saw plenty of Galapagos around the cleaning station. The hammerheads were everywhere at Dirty Rock, making it the best dive site of the week.

The night dive at Manuelita Coral Garden was packed with hunting whitetip reef sharks, making for a very exciting dive. The third day we went to the legendary Alcyone, where we usually expect to see hammerheads schooling, but this week we noticed and absence of big numbers of this shy shark, instead there were massive schools of bigeye trevally and big schools of mullet snappers.

The fourth day we decided to explore the south of the Island (Dos Amigos). After realizing where the best action was, we decided to head back to Dirty Rock and Punta Maria. The action at these sites was incredible! We continued to see whale sharks, hammerheads sharks, and Galapagos sharks!

There is absolutely no doubt that the reason this Australian group had lucky whale sharks encounters at every turn had something to do with their positive vibes and friendly fun loving attitude.

Best dive site this week was Manuelita. The first and second cleaning stations had very good hammerhead action. Punta Maria was also very good, as there were Galapagos sharks getting cleaned in the cleaning station, which made for an incredible sight. Alcyone got better and better as the week went on, with schools of hammerheads appearing in the blue. There wee also hammerheads around Dirty Rock, but deep.

The night dives to Ulloa and Manuelita Coral Garden were pretty spectacular. A tiger shark appeared on the dive to Ulloa, checking out the whitetips and circling the divers. Then in Manuelita Coral Garden two Galapagos shark and a tiger shark showed up!

It was an amazing trip with a very fun group of divers. To close out this thrilling trip the group got one more breathtaking sight. On the return to the mainland the entire group gathered at the bow, at night, to watch 10 dolphins, illuminated by the phosphorescence, leaping and riding the bow wave. A magical end to a very special trip to Cocos Island!

Visit our Facebook page for more photos from this trip!!!

From the very first dive we knew we were in for a very exciting week! At the check out dive we saw a tiger shark chasing a turtle. Then at the very end of our dive the tiger shark was eating the turtle (who was fighting for his life at the surface).

The second day we explored the south side of the island. We went to both Dos Amigos and had very good dives at the bigger of the two brothers. A strong current was hitting the site, which was favorable to see sharks. Hammerheads and Galapagos were going back and forth giving us plenty to watch. At night we had the traditional night dive at Manuelita Coral Garden, and as usual, the place was packed full of whitetip reef shark action! Dozens of them were hunting for their next meal and a few of them got very lucky!

The third day we dove Alcyone, where we saw the first big school of hammers and a whale shark! While at Submerged the divers were having relaxed but very colorful dives packed full of life. The other hotspot during this trip were Dirty Rock, where we went the fourth day. Hammers were at the cleaning stations and in the blue, delighting all the divers. At Punta Maria there were just a few Galapagos sharks gathering at the cleaning station, but that would completely change in a couple of days...

The fifth day we did both dives at the legendary Alcyone, and the first of both dives was specially good, while we were holding onto a rock at 90ft the hammerheads were schooling right in front of us. At the second dive there was nearly no current, and because of that, there were just a few hammers getting cleaned by king angelfish and barberfish.

In the afternoon we decided to dive Lobster Rock and find the endemic rosy-lipped batfish. We were successful and found the little guy right below the thermocline at 80ft. The water temp was around 72F, a good temperature for this very distinct creature. The photographers in the group took their time getting the best angle of the little fish.

Day 6 was one of the best day. Both Punta Maria and Dirty Rock were full of action! At Punta Maria around 8-9 Galapagos sharks were circling the cleaning station, completely ignoring the divers staring at them, we just left the cleaning stations when our computers were telling us that was time to ascend. We had to do so leaving all those sharks behind. Dirty Rock was full of action again, particularly during the second dive.

To conclude the awesome week we returned to what had been the best spots, Alcyone and Dirty Rock, but it wasn't till the very last dive that we encountered every divers dream. We were doing our last dive at Manuelita when a 20ft whale shark swam above our heads. Then he turned around and swam through the whole group twice, giving every diver a brilliant opportunity to get very close to such a gentle and giant animal.

Cruise Director Jim

On this very special PRETOMA Shark and Turtle Tagging Trip, we welcomed on board divers from many different countries, all of them gathered by Randall Arauz and Todd Steiner, the leaders of the organization (click here to see previous trips and learn more about PRETOMA). As we made the journey to the island, all the tools needed for the expeditions were being prepared: tags, transmitters, and all sorts of items needed to properly track and record data.

On our very first day diving Manuelita the group spotted our firsts tiger sharks. We have observed a steady increase in tiger shark sighting in recent months and we believe this increase may explain why we are seeing a decrease in the number of turtles.

The second day we had a wonderful dive at Dirty Rock. Hammerheads were all over the place. Punta Maria was also as its best! Galapagos, blacktips and hammerheads were sharing the same cleaning station, making for an excellent view.

The third day marked our opportunity to explore the east side of the Island, and at Alcyone we saw a river of hammerheads passing through the cleaning station. Submerged Rock was equally brilliant, with big schools of snapper, black jacks and whitetips congregating around the swim through.

At night, like the previous day, a huge school of whitetips were looking for dinner at Manuelita Coral Garden. Day four was time for both Dos Amigos; we had very good dives to the bigger of the two brothers, where a group of eagle rays were feeding extremely close to the divers.

Day 5 we went back to the sites with the most action; Dirty Rock and Punta Maria, where we encountered great shark action. Over at Alcyone, one of the most popular sites, we lucked when a massive school of hammerheads swam in front of us while we were holding onto a rock in front of one of the cleaning station.

The last day we decided to head back to Alcyone and Dirty rock, as these were the divers favorites. The diving had been excellent, but the scientists hadn't been as lucky as they had hoped. While they were successful in recovering stats on previously tagged animals, on this trip they were only able to place one new tag on a turtle.

Our trip came to a close, but not before we had one last big animal encounter! On our crossing back to the mainland, we spotted a small pod of humpback whales. An exciting end to an unforgettable trip.

We had very good dives at Manuelita, where we hit the Cocos Island trifecta; hammerheads, tigers (one 4m/14ft female) and Galapagos sharks. The dives to Dirty Rock were some of the best we've experienced in a long time. The hammerheads were everywhere and each time we returned to dive there we were rewarded with the same great hammerhead action.

Even with the amazing dives we had at Dirty Rock, there is simply no comparison to the action packed dives at Alcyone. We saw massive schools of hammerheads and even a whale shark appeared right in front of the group and decided to hover right in front of us and stay with the group the whole dive :)

The swim through at Submerged Rock was full of snappers, black jacks and whitetips. At night, the action was at Manuelita Coral Garden, where dozens and dozens of white tips searched along the reef for their next meal. We returned to dive Manuelita, and we couldn't have been more pleased. The cleaning station was covered in hammerheads, and a few Galapagos and tiger sharks also crossed our paths, this time in pairs!

Five days into the trip we decided to go back to Alcyone, due to the extremely good conditions and dives that we had the previous days, and WOW are we glad we did! We saw big schools of hammers, as well as a mobula ray.

Sometimes, small details of the trip get lost when we focus on the tiger sharks, whale sharks and hammerheads, but it is important to mention that we swam through giant schools of jacks as we were ascending from nearly every dive.

So what could top all these amazing dives? How about this scenario from our dive to Manuelita Channel... as we were holding onto a rock, two tiger sharks came very close to us. One of them passed just a few feet above our heads and right away a giant manta swam right behind us! There was action all over the place and we can't wait to return next week and see what Cocos has in store for us! - Cruise Director Jim and Dive Guide Mau.

What a dive trip!!! It couldn't have begun in a better way! The check out dive already gave us a clue about how good the diving would be during the week. As soon as both teams jumped in the water to adjust weights a tiger shark appeared as though he was welcoming us to the Island. A few minutes later the lucky yellow team had a rare sea lion encounter when one swam right above the whole group.

The other dives of the day at Manuelita were packed with hammerheads in in the blue and at the cleaning stations, with a few random Galapagos sharks cruising by as well. The sun was shining when the second began, and sunny conditions remained for the whole trip.

On our dives to Dirty Rock and Punta Maria we again had really good action, especially at Punta Maria, in which the cleaning station was very active and lots of Galapagos sharks were going back and forth getting cleaned. The first night dive of the trip at Ulloa would also be a premonition to was was to come after the sun sets. Hundreds of white tips hunting on the reef, leaving very little chance for the fish on the reef to survive. The third day we went to the legendary Alcyone, in which each dive we experienced different encounters. On some dives the cleaning stations weren't extremely active but in other dives in the same spot we would see a wall of hammerheads cruising in front of the group of divers.

Day four we went to the south of the Island, where we dove the Big and the Small Dos Amigos islands. The hammerhead action was very heavy at Small Dos Amigos, where photographers were getting amazing close up shot opportunities. Same day at night we dove the classic Manueltia Coral Garden night dive and we witnessed an amazing feeding freenzy by whitetips reef sharks (best action we've seen in months).

The rest of the week we decided to focus the divers favorites: Alcyone, Dirty Rock, Small Dos amigos and Manuelita. And those days will not be easily forgotten because during these days we had epic dives! For example at Alcyone, we saw a group of dolphins hunting right in the middle of a massive school of jacks. Just the massive amounts of hammerheads in the blue was enough to send us all grinning ear to ear! At Dirty Rock we also sighted hammerheads, especially around the pinnacle. At the Small Dos Amigos the hammerheads kept on coming close to divers and around Manulelita more hammerheads were seen in the open waters.

All the divers was extremely happy! A special consideration is that some of the guests, which we already consider friends, were frequent repeaters and their diving expectations were exceeded during this trip! The trip has been very warm and sunny, we didn't have any rain during the whole trip. The guests were frequently gathering around the sun deck to relax, chat or read.

The first days at cocos we had very good hammerhead activity almost every dive. The highlight was the bait ball at Manuelita with silkys, big Galapagos, dolphins, black tips, black/blue/big eye jacks and mullet snappers feeding on the bait.... crazy bait ball!

Sharks hit our engines very hard several times as all the bait fish were trying to find protection under the skiff. We had an excellent dive at Dirty Rock with many hammerheads and two, possibly 3 whale sharks, I only saw 2 different ones.

Punta maria had very good Galapagos action and we had a very friendly turtle on the last dive. She accompanied the group for several minutes and even followed us to the safety stop, so nice! we had a very good dive at Alcyone the 3rd day, lots of hammerheads and a whale shark. The 2nd and 3rd cleaning stations were very active the first days, many hammerheads getting cleaned.

After a super calm crossing to the island with dolphins and tons of sunshine along the way, we arrived to the island and were greeted with excellent diving conditions as well. The best site this week was Alcyone, with many many hammerheads in the blue. Over in Dirty Rock, we saw big schools of jacks that were just incredible to behold. Manuelita did not disappoint, we saw Galapagos in the Coral Garden and tiger sharks on the outside. We also saw a sea lion in Chatham Bay!

One of our favorite dives of the week was to Manuelita Channel, where we had close encounters with Galapagos sharks. On one of our dives we had a close encounter with 7 Galapagos circling. Just when all the divers were watching the group, a female passed close to the rock following after something, and she passed just in front of us, only 40cm away. What a dive and what a fabulous trip! - Manuel and Mao

We had a beautiful crossing to Cocos and once we arrived we had sun and more sun and then more sun! We had great dives with the tiger shark in Manuelita Channel and Manuelita Coral Garden (Check out the video above). We also spotted a sea ​​lion hanging out close to Wafer Bay (again).

Our favorite dives were in the Coral Garden because of the Galapagos and tiger sharks sightings. Submerged Rock was also very, the swim through was packed with snappers. At Alcyone we tunas as well as hammerheads that were passing in and out of the cleaning station while passing close to divers.We also spotted a few dolphins on the way to Dirty Rock. The crossing back to the mainland was calm and we spotted a huge school of about 40 dolphins mid cruise...another beautiful dive trip to Cocos Island - Cruise Director Juan Manuel

Another beautiful week of diving Cocos Island has come to an end. We had a fantastic group of divers join us for Edwar's Photography Workshop (contact us if you are interested in a special photo-trip this year).


Highlights this week included many tiger shark sighting (Manuelita Channel and Lobster Rock), beautiful schools of fish, and huge Galapagos sharks (that even appeared on a night dive)!!!


Our overall best dive of the trip was at Lobster rock, where we saw a tiger shark, mantas, and a batfish. Alcyone was a little slower than usual, but on our last day of diving a few dolphins showed up to to give us a proper send off.


The group enjoyed many evenings of educational photography talks with Edwar and as an added bonus we had a special guest presentation by Mr. John Bantin, the Technical Editor for Diver Magazine, UK., discussed his latest book, Amazing Diving Stories: Incredible Tales from Deep Beneath the Sea.


The diving conditions were very challenging at times; the currents at the surface were going in an opposite direction of the current under the thermocline, the visibility was fluctuating throughout the dives, and we had chilly temperatures (72°-77°F) for final 4 days at the island.

Our week at Cocos started out with a big surprise! A sea lion decided to join the Blue Team on their check-out dive to Manuelita. In recent years we have had just a handful of sea lion sightings in Cocos, but this marks the 3 time this year. The sea lion even came close to the group, almost as though he was welcoming them to Cocos!

The subsequent dives at Manuelita were wonderful. A very curious tiger shark swam around the Yellow Team several times, delighting the entire group of divers. The tiger shark was definitely the star of the trip, as we had frequent tiger sightings nearly every dive to Manuelita. The second day of diving we experienced uncommon conditions; currents were mixing from different directions and there was also cold thermoclines hitting us while we waited at the cleaning stations. Conditions remained the same for nearly the rest of the trip.

In many dive sites like Dos Amigos, Punta Maria, Dirty Rock and Alcyone we continued to see large schools of big eye jacks as well as marbled rays and different species of snappers. During this time it was also raining most of the day day. But just like in a movie with a happy ending, the conditions improved a lot the last two days, giving the group the perfect chance to visit the ranger station at Wafer Bay.

Our last day in Cocos was glorious, the currents calmed and the sky completely cleared. In both our dives to Alcyone, we were surrounded by hundreds of hammerheads patrolling the reef. In one of the dives, the Blue Team even saw yellow-fin tunas hunting along with a pod of dolphins!

After our dives to Alcyone we finished the day at Manuelita, where both groups saw tiger sharks, Galapagos sharks and hammerheads. A feeling of pure adrenaline seemed to pulse through the group. During the way back to Puntarenas the conditions were so favorable that we stopped in the middle of the open ocean to go for a very refreshing swim :) At the end everyone was very happy and satisfied with another wonderful experience at Cocos Island!