Sea Hunter Nov 24 – Dec 04, 2023 | Cocos Island Trip Report

We’re just back from our most recent Cocos Island expedition! We started off the trip with an abundance of colorful fish on our checkout dive. We swam with a huge school of jacks at the safety stop in the Channel, as well as Galapagos sharks and eagle rays at Manuelita Outside. The water was unusually warm at 84F.

At Dirty Rock we saw some nice schools of hammerheads out in the blue, as well as bigeye jacks around the pinnacle. Punta Maria showed us subpar visibility but was full of fish, including bluefin trevally and blue and gold snappers – plus whitetip reef sharks and marble rays. We saw a lot of macro life at the Coral Garden, including a gorgeous yellow frogfish.

We encountered a curious juvenile silvertip at Viking Rock. Later we had an AMAZING close encounter with a giant Pacific manta ray at Submerged Rock, and again we witnessed another giant manta at Dirty Rock. At Big Dos Amigos we saw about 50+ whitetip reef sharks hunting.

Unfortunately, the underwater conditions at Alcyone left a lot to be desired – but we did manage to see a few schools of hammers out in the blue there.  Dolphins came by to say hello at our safety stops this week at Manuelita Out and Alcyone!