June 25 – July 5, 2026 | Cocos Island Trip Report | Sea Hunter

We departed Puntarenas on June 25th and had one of the easiest crossings of the season, flat and smooth the whole way out. Joining us this trip was the team from Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN), continuing their long-running research at Cocos.

Our check dive at Chatham Bay turned up an eagle ray, a mobula, and a pack of whitetip reef sharks tangled up with a school of bluefin trevally. By the afternoon at Manuelita we had hammerheads working the cleaning stations, a small group passing right over our heads, big yellowfin tuna patrolling the deep side of the rock, and a giant manta that glided past the group slow and unhurried. Not a bad first day in the water!

Day 2 took us to Dirty Rock, where a school of 700+ big-eye jacks held tight to the pinnacle and a school of hammerheads appeared out in the blue, with a silky shark cruising below the group. At Punta Maria a melanistic manta (all-dark color) kept circling back to the group again and again. For a couple of minutes there were three mantas around us at once. We closed the day at Porites in the middle of a black durgon spawning event, with whitetips weaving through the action.

Day 3 was when the trip found another gear. At Alcyone, a whale shark cruised straight through the cleaning station, right in front of the entire group! The same dive gave us a close encounter with a Galápagos shark, a school of juvenile hammerheads in the blue, and dolphins at the surface as we came up. In the afternoon at Manuelita, several hundred ballyhoo balled up near the surface with silky sharks starting to press in around the edges. We finished the day small and slow at Pajara with lobsters, pistol shrimp, mantis shrimp, and a well-camouflaged scorpionfish.

Day 4 belonged to the big animals. At Shark Fin Rock, a school of 500+ big-eye jacks wrapped around the rock and stretched deeper than we could see. Then, as we came up to the safety stop, two tiger sharks approached the group. Big, heavy-bodied females, close enough to appreciate every detail. Small Dos Amigos followed with Galápagos sharks on the cleaning station, an oceanic blacktip, and four curious silvertips that came right up to the group at the end of the dive.

Day 5 asked for a little patience at Dirty Rock, but Punta Maria gave us one of the encounters of the week: a giant male manta that circled the group for 30 minutes straight. Nonstop, friendly, and in beautifully clear water. It completely stole the show.

Day 6 at Small Dos Amigos the Galápagos sharks were everywhere, with oceanic blacktips and hammerheads in the mix, and then a second whale shark appeared. This one was a true giant, around 30 feet long, and it passed right beside the rock, turned, and came back for a second look. A mobula in the blue and a pod of five dolphins that stayed with us through the safety stop finished the dive. Our guide called it one of the best dives of his life!

Alcyone followed with a manta rising from the deep, a Galápagos shark going after the remoras hitching a ride on its back, and a tiger shark passing by at the end. At Manuelita Coral Garden, nine blacktip reef sharks hunted alongside a handful of whitetips, racing around the reef in front of us. We rounded out the day with an island walk, a beautiful reminder that Cocos is magical above the surface too.

And still the island wasn’t done. On our final day at Small Dos Amigos, a third whale shark appeared, a juvenile this time, with another tiger shark and Galápagos sharks passing close to the group. Three whale sharks in a single week! We wrapped up with hammerheads and a wall of jacks at Dirty Rock, and a calm last dive at Manuelita where a truly enormous moray gave us a proper send-off before we pointed the bow toward Puntarenas for another glassy crossing home. More than one guest booked their next Cocos Island trip before we returned to the mainland!