Cocos Island, Costa Rica Guadeloupe Turks and Caicos Islands

Cocos Island,
Costa Rica
Pelagic Paradise
Guadeloupe
Turks and
Caicos Islands
Cozumel
Saba
Photo School
Snell’s Window
JAN-APR 2015 Volume 6 Issue 1
US $7.99 / CAN $9.99
Luxury LIVE-ABOARD
Okeanos Aggressor
Pelagic Paradise
COCOS ISLAND
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Wayne B. Brown
SOLOMON BAKSH
A large school of
cottonmouth jacks at
Dirty Rock
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B
The spacious salon has a library, computer
and entertainment center
The luxurious Okeanos Aggressor
The camera table is large enough to hold
several full-sized DSLR housings
All state rooms have individual climate
control and private bathroom
Lowering the pangas in Chatham Bay with
Manuelita Island in the background
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MANUELITA ISLAND
Manuelita Garden
Manuelita Channel
Pajara Island
Viking Rock
Dirty Rock
Punta Maria
Chatham
Bay
PAC I F I C
OCEAN
Wafer Bay
COCOS
ISLAND
Alcyone
Big Dos Amigos
Lauren Hill
Small Dos Amigos
A view of the anchored Okeanos Aggressor
in Chatham Bay, with Manuelita Island on
the extreme left
Sailfin blenny
Divers listening attentively
to a dive briefing
Wayne B. Brown
The speedy pangas are roomy
and exiting and entering is
quite easy
10
Manuelita Garden is filled with a wide range
of marine life, like these blue-and-gold
snappers
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Wayne B. Brown
A Mexican hogfish foraging for food
Marbled rays like this one at Small Dos Amigos,
are a common sight around Cocos Island
White-tip sharks can always be seen resting
under ledges and on wide sandy patches
Leather bass are typically solitary but it is
not uncommon to see them schooling
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The boulder-strewn reef of at Big Dos Amigos
is covered with a carpet of blue-and-gold
snappers, Pacific Creole fish and barberfish
Zebra moray
Alberto Muñoz
This massive shoal of horse-eye jacks is
resident at Dirty Rock
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There are several species
of turtles in Cocos such
as this green turtle
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Alberto Muñoz
A diver is dwarfed by the sheer size of
this tiger shark at Manuelita Channel
Alcyone is Cocos Island’s top dive site, filled
with a variety of sharks and other pelagics
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Paul Gruner
A shy grouper hiding under a large
overhang at Dirty Rock
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Whipper snappers at Manuelita Deep
Wayne B. Brown
A large swirl of horse-eye jacks at Alcyone
Paul Gruner
Night dives in Cocos are action-packed
with dozens of white-tip sharks hunting in
large schools
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White-tip sharks can be easily approached for
photographs and only swim away when bothered
Undulated morays are
found primarily around
offshore islands like Cocos
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Wayne B. Brown
A variety of fishes at Manuelita Shallow,
with a leather bass in the foreground
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CocosMACROS
Sonora Goby
Juvenile king angelfish
Juvenile rockmover wrasse
Bluespotted jawfish
Cocos serrano
Clubhead barnacle blenny
Coral hawkfish
Yellowtail
damselfish
Panamic fanged blenny
Spotted boxfish
Triplefin blenny
Redsaddled snake eel
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Starry moray
Bluntspine
barnacle blenny
The eye of a
white-tip shark
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Paul Gruner
The deep pinnacle at Punta Maria is always
busy with fish, sharks, rays and turtles
These large marbled rays
congregate in the sand
channel on Punta Maria
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This golden yellow phase of
the bacalao (also known as the
golden grouper) at Punta Maria,
is uncommon
The massive arch at Big
Dos Amigos, is filled with
schools of burrito grunts,
leather bass, barberfish and
marbled rays
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Cocos Island is world renowned for the
thousands of scalloped hammerhead sharks
that congregate there
A group of divers at Alcyone watching
in awe at the massive wall of scalloped
hammerhead sharks
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A school of Pacific Creole fish atop
the pinnacle at Punta Maria
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KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
Nicaragua
Caribbean Sea
Costa
Rica
Panama
Pacific Ocean
Cocos Island
Overview: Located between Nicaragua to
the north and Panama to the south, Costa
Rica is a peaceful and stable country, not
even having an army. Cocos Island is about
340 miles off the Pacific Coast and is an
oceanic island that is volcanic as well as
tectonic in origin.
Capital: San Jose
Paul Gruner
Area: With an area of 19,730 square miles,
it is the third-smallest country in Central
America. It has both Caribbean, as well as
Pacific coastlines, covering a total length of
about 800 miles. Cocos Island is 9.2 square
miles in area.
Moorish idols and a blue-and-gold
snapper at Viking Rock
Population: Cocos Island is protected and
uninhabited so only a certain amount of
divers are allowed at any time.
Language: Spanish is the official language
but English is spoken throughout the
tourism and hospitality sector.
Currency: The Colon floats against the US$
and its present exchange rate is: ₡535 to
US$1. Banks and hotels give the best rate,
not the airport cambios.
Electricity: Electrical current is 110 Volts
at 50 cycles and standard American-type
electronics, will work without problems.
Adapters or transformers might be required
for European electronics, depending on
the resort or hotel.
Getting there: There are two international
airports, in San Jose and Liberia. There
are various international airlines such as:
United, AA, Iberia, Copa, Avianca, WestJet,
Spirit, JetBlue, Air Canada, US Airways and
Delta. There is a Departure Tax of US$29
that must be paid before checking in at the
airline counter.
Colorful fishes at Alcyone
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COCOSSIGHTS
Manuelita Island is the largest of the
islets around Cocos and is a spectacular
dive area, filled with sharks, rays and the
occasional whale shark
The bridge El Copey, was
constructed using confiscated
buoys from illegal fishing
Red-footed booby
There are dozens of swimming
pools like this one, scattered
throughout the island
There are over 100
waterfalls on Cocos Island
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There are over 90 bird
species on Cocos Island
Wayne B. Brown
A mural at the Ranger
Station at Chatham Bay
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