Explore Cocos Island
Cocos Island is an island in the Pacific Ocean located 550 kilometers/342 miles southwest of Costa Rica's Puntarenas Province. This is an extremely popular diving destination with around 15 dive sites, which are so fantastic they are often visited multiple times on one trip. This remote location provides a unique experience of having the island's waters to yourself to admire the flourishing biodiversity, including a large number of large marine species that roam the waters. The flourishing biodiversity is not represented in large coral reefs but by unique rock formations where multiple species have made their homes. One of the main highlights here, which is also usually one of the main reasons divers want to dive here, is the hammerhead sharks.
Not just a few hammerhead sharks, no, entire schools of them for a truly unique and exhilarating experience. Conditions here can be more challenging, so divers are required to be advanced.
The only way to visit Cocos Island is by liveaboard due to its remote location, so there are no dive centers or dive resorts that visit this location for a day.
Dive Activity
Diving at Cocos Island
Cocos Island lies out in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding this island are numerous types of dives. There are no shallow, colourful coral reefs to explore here, but the unique rock formations here provide divers with an exhilarating diving experience. All diving here is done from Liveaboards and divers and for some of the dive sites it is preferred to be at least Advanced to dive here, due to currents and depths. There is one coral garden here which is a preferred dive site for night dives due to the high abundance of critters which inhabit the garden. There are some impressive rock formations in the form of large seamounts, pinnacles, immense boulders and archways. There are strong currents here which allow for some impressive drift dives. The main type of diving here, though, is the dives where divers look out into the blue and admire the spectacular large marine species gliding by out in the blue. There are also opportunities for Tec divers here.
Top Wildlife Sightings at Cocos Island
This remote location means mostly undisturbed environments and so the opportunity for the marine life here to thrive. Inside all the cracks and crevices, divers can spot Octopus, Sea Turtles and the strange Soap Fish, but it’s out in the blue where the divers need to keep their eyes out. This area is also scattered with schools of Trevally, Jacks, Snappers and many more fish species. The absolute highlight here are the large schools of Scalloping Hammerhead Sharks, with a large amount of individuals per school, this is a unique and exciting experience. However, aside from this unique experience, there are many more large species to spot here; Manta Rays, Mobula Rays, Whale Sharks, Eagle Rays, Silky Sharks, Dolphins, and on the luckiest days, Tiger Sharks. There are also numerous White Tip Reef Sharks here, but the best time to see them is at night when they are most active and possibly in a feeding frenzy. There are two cleaning stations around Cocos Island which provide divers with an ideal way to observe these creatures in their natural habitats.
Wildlife Sightings are Based on User Generated Content
AdobeStock/G Russel Childress
57 Sightings
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Alamy-Christian Zappel
Scalloped Hammerhead
35 Sightings
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4
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The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species: 25
iStock/Juliosanjuan
Eagle Ray
32 Sightings
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6
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The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species: 200
Alamy-WaterFrame
Moray Eel
16 Sightings
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iStock/Extreme Photographer
Whale Shark
4 Sightings
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3
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The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species: 27
iStock-Global_Pics
Barracuda
3 Sightings
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iStock-June Jacobsen
Whitetip Reef Shark
31 Sightings
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6
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1
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7
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11
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4
iStock_strmko
Silky Shark
21 Sightings
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2
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1
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14
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3
The image shown is a representative illustration and does not depict every individual animal in this category.
Total number of species: 80
iStock/Extreme-Photographer
Stingrays
17 Sightings
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AdobeStock-Nikolai Sorokin
Blacktip Reef Shark
14 Sightings
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6
The best Months to Dive at Cocos Island
The weather conditions on Cocos Island are slightly temperamental. It is almost always cloudy and humid here, with an average temperature throughout the year of 27°C/81°F. The summer, in this case, the rainy season, has its pros and cons. The cons are more rain showers, less visibility, and rougher waters, but the pro, and this makes it worth it, is the extreme increase in large marine species, which make their appearance here due to the increase in nutrients in the water. December to May is the dry season, also known as the 'winter' season. During this time, the water is very calm for a more pleasant sailing experience, and the visibility increases. The water temperature at Cocos Island ranges between 24°C–29°C/75°F–84°F. The visibility ranges between 10 meters/33 feet and 35 meters/115 feet on the best days.
