Cocos Trip Report Feb 09

I'm headed to Cocos in August aboard the Sea Hunter and was hoping to do the night dives. Does anyone know if these are still on? Or are aggressive tigers preventing them?

Also, any tips on wetsuits? Are most in 5s? 7s? hoods? I realize it varies from diver to diver but any 'rules of thumb' appreciated. cheers, Alex

my cousin was on the Argo for the christmas/new years trip and come back pretty disappointed. Hardly any hammerheads, no silvertips, no silkes, no large numbers of rays.He was getting 28c on most of the dives. When I was there for christmas 08 we were getting 23 - 24c. They did do the night dive at Manuelita inside and had a good time there watching the stupid whitetips chase their tails. But things are certainly not looking too clever up there.

Stew

Trip Report Cocos Feb 09

 

Flights Baku-Dubai-Houston-San Jose

Hotels- Best Western Iruz was ok. Nice pool and free Wi-fi.

2 Nights at Arenal Paradise Hotel. Nice hotel set in huge gardens with natural springs and great view of the volcano. I did not see volcano upper half due to clouds.

I did the canopy tour that was great fun, zip-lining through the trees.

1 night in Puntarena. Checked into hotel only to find a carnival passing my balcony below. Was great fun.

 

Trip

22/02/09 to 04/03/09 on board the Undersea hunter

We had an extremely calm crossing to Cocos, spotting a few Humpbacks and lots of dolphins. Most other guest were European. 14 Guests on board.

The boat is nice in a functional way. . On the crossing there was not much space on the decks as the skiffs were on the upper & lower deck. There was also less common areas/lounges compared to other live boards I have been on. The skiffs were excellent. Very easy to get into after dive. Crossing on way back was bumpy/unpleasant.

 

Crew/Service was excellent. The food was very good throughout the trip. Lots of nice snacks after the dives. Some of the guides were new but all done a great job. Manuel and the others were very funny.

 

The Diving…

I targeted a summer trip as I knew the crossing would be better and took a chance on the diving. I must say that the diving was a slight disappointment. I think everyone who travels so far on such an expensive trip always have high expectations.

At Cocos the topside conditions were great. Sunny & calm seas. The water temp varied from 31 C at the surface to 24 C at 30 m with the thermocline. I would say the average temperature was 27-28 C. Most dived in a 5/7mm combo wetsuit. The viss varied a lot over the week and on each dive. Unfortunately it was not great at 30 m when we were looking for the hammerheads. Not much current at any of the sites. A little current at Alycone at 30 m. Lots of surge at most sites. Sometimes a little uncomfortable.

 

The highlights were definitely the amount of White tips on every dive. It was amazing to see them so often and get so close. Also saw some amazing groups of Jacks, largest I have ever seen.

 

My favourite dive was Manuelita Out. Just for the variety. White tips, rays and the underwater landscape were excellent. Perhaps the best dive of the week was Dirty rock for the quantity of fish. Thousands of Jacks.

 

The 1st half of the week was disappointing. There was no action at any of the cleaning stations at the sites we dived. We dived Alycone and did not seen any Hammers. Later in the week we had more success and saw a few individuals, 5 to 10, reasonably close, perhaps more further away. On the very last dive we saw a big group of maybe 40-50 but deep and out in blue water.

 

For me the disappointment was not seeing many other shark species. I saw White tips, Hammers and 1 Silky, (& Perhaps 1 black tip in the distance). After visiting the Galapagos I was expecting to see more at Cocos.

The major talking point was the night dives. The Undersea Hunter did not offer any Night dives at Manuelita garden the very famous night dive to see the masses of whitetips hunting at night. Over the last few months both the Aggressor and Hunter boats have reported that the now resident Tiger sharks (did not see any but was told they are now at Cocos) have become aggressive towards divers at night. There was an incident with one of our guides who said a tiger had bitten a white tip then displayed some aggression towards a diver several weeks ago. Since then the night dives have been at sites with little shark hunting action (as not to attract the Tigers). I did not see any of the white sharks hunting at night after 5 night dives. .

 

Summary

The Undersea Hunter was a first class operation. I would highly recommend them to anyone considering a trip to Cocos. The diving was great but I was a little disappointed, especially as my last trip was to the Galapagos in Oct which was amazing. I think the main reason was the water temps. I have read about La Nina conditions that have increased the water temps. The best dives were always the colder ones. Perhaps I will return to Cocos one day but would probably return closer to the winter season for the cooler water. I have seen just a small sample of the potential that Cocos can offer. I have no doubt that if you get lucky at Cocos you will probably see some of the worlds best diving.

I was there in Nov, and we had 3 night dives on Manuelita with Undersea Hunter, a lot of action and I've been amazed by the place. IT is weird how the ocean can chance from a week to the other.

Photos are here, including night dive photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigeyebubblef...57622702127621/

I loved this trip, my best trip ever...

In July and August a 3 mm suit will be just fine. The water temp is usually between 80-82º however, there can be thermoclines once in a while. If you decide on a 5mm suit that is ok as well, you won't be too hot.

I am going back to the Cocos for the 12th time July 30-Aug.9th, 2011. Like I said in my previous posts, if I can't get the good dates for the Cocos, I don't go but these dates are optimal so you can expect several large schools of hammers and some whale sharks to boot. If anyone is interested in joining me, just let me know as I booked the entire boat.

Steve

Hi,

Is it possible to make goood quality pictures in the rainy season from the school of hammerheads?? or should you try your luck in the wintertime with better viz??

Rob

Hi,

 

Is it possible to make goood quality pictures in the rainy season from the school of hammerheads?? or should you try your luck in the wintertime with better viz??

 

 

 

Rob

It doesnt always rain in the rainy season, but when it does it makes the water very cloudy. i was there in december and we had 72 hours of non stop rain and the water was brown on most of the dive sites due to the run off from the waterfalls. Having said that you do need the schools of sharks there to get a chance at the hammerhead wallpaper shot anyway. Cocos is a great place and anyone who is into sharks should go there at least once.

Stew

For some reason it seems like tiger sharks have become a regular occurrence at manuelita this year with multiple sitings on most of the trips this year so far. Will be heading back to cocos in 3 weeks for my second trip and really looking forward to it.

Half the boat for the 2011 trip to the Cocos has already been filled. They updated many things while in drydock this year and turned the Quad into a 2 person suite which means 20 divers instead of 22. That's fine by me. Several divers from wetpixel have decided to join us and, while there are openings, others are still welcome. In 2008, I had to turn down at least 6 divers who waited too long. If you are one of those who tend to get seasick, get a prescription for Scopace. It is like the patch but considerably better since you can cut the pill in half if you don't need a full dose. With the scoplamine patches, you can't cut them though many do so incorrectly thinking that they would get only a half dose.

Steve