Sea Hunter Aug 4-18, 2022 | Cocos Island Trip Report

“This trip was full of the magic Cocos is known for.. Schools of hammerheads in the blue were plentiful, regular Tiger sitings throughout the trip, mantas, many eagle rays… I could go on and on… Can’t wait to be back.. Paradise!” — Tracy, Turks & Caicos

We’re just back from another absolutely phenomenal trip to Cocos Island! The crossing was smooth and full of sunshine. We enjoyed warm water and fantastic visibility (between 80-100ft) all week long. 

Our first day we saw lots of whitetips and had a close encounter with a tiger shark at the Coral Garden. Our third dive at Manuelita Outside we saw a giant manta ray and oceanic blacktip. The following day we heard humpback whales at Punta Maria, and saw a massive tiger shark as well as school of hammerheads at Dirty Rock. There were dolphins at Alcyone, and another Manta that stayed with us for over 10 minutes at Pajara. There were more mantas at Big Dos Amigos plus blacktip reef sharks, and mother and baby dolphins at Small Dos Amigos.

We started to see some stronger currents around day 5. By day 6 Manuelita was on fire!! The strong currents seemed to be bringing in the nutrients and cold water. The first and second cleaning stations were just full of hammerheads and we saw many in the blue. Alcyone was quiet in terms of hammerheads, but we had a fantastic encounter with 3 silky sharks in middle water that seemed to be mating. One female and two males were swimming very close to us…after the safety stop we decided to end the dive and give them some space to do the deed.

At Manuelita Outside we saw a whale shark as well as 5 eagle rays along the sandy bottom – topped by 4 southern rays (a very rare sight, especially in Manuelita with so many tiger sharks around!). We finished up our dive at Dirty Rock by swimming the middle of a giant school of hammerheads out in the blue. Absolutely amazing!

Day 8 Manuelita was on fire again, with hammerheads all around, a cold thermocline at about 100ft, 2 tiger sharks and a whale shark over the cleaning station – plus 2 silkies out in the blue. 

Then at Punta Maria we had a VERY curious juvenile hammerhead shark that came in nice and close to us plus a beautiful silvertip. We wrapped up the trip with mating marble rays at Manuelita –over 25 marble rays together, followed by tiger sharks along the sandy bottom. What a way to end a perfect expedition to Cocos Island!!