A primeval paradise
Far off mainland Costa Rica, Cocos Island is a remote green speck in the Pacific Ocean. This untamed, jungle-clad island was the unofficial inspiration behind Jurassic Park, with waterfalls cascading from a fortress of mountains and no official inhabitants other national park rangers.
The deep blue waters surrounding it are considered the most shark populated on Earth. As it’s roughly a thirty-five hour sail from the nearest civilisation, most of the island’s visitors live beneath the waves, such as giant manta rays, sailfish and the world’s largest aggregations of the near-threatened silky sharks.
Underwater drop offs and seamounts the size of small islands make Cocos Island an unmissable deep-sea dive destination. Onboard a research vessel — or a superyacht with a support boat in tow — you can search these waters alongside our marine guides for some of the largest predators to roam the ocean.
Descend in a submersible to the base of Everest, a seamount named by our submersible pilot, and look overhead to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of scalloped hammerheads and mobile rays circling in the currents. We can incorporate conservation into your adventure so that your deep-sea dives could help scientists learn more about this precious ecosystem.
If the time of year is right, we can also organise for you to visit the Costa Rican Thermal Dome, one of the Pacific’s richest ecosystems. This oceanographic phenomenon, caused by an upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters from the deep creates an explosion of algae and plankton, attracting a staggering amount of marine species in one the natural world’s greatest spectacles. It’s a particularly difficult proposition to execute as the dive site changes diameter and position every year, but that’s part of the fun.
Deep sea exploration
Lower a submersible into the abyss and discover why Cocos Island is fantastic for deep-sea diving, homing sheer drop-offs and unusual rock formations. Here the coral and marine life are adapted to the darkness, with no sunlight penetrating the cold and silent depths.
Marine conservation
This rocky outcrop is absolutely critical to shark populations and other majestic marine life. Together with marine guides, we can design unique and hands-on conservation experiences for you in this shark-infested paradise.
Diving Dirty Rock
For the few of those in the know, Dirty Rock is considered to be the best dive destination at Cocos. Hammerhead sharks are usually spotted as soon as you anchor, but venture a little deeper to a cleaning station and learn why it has been nicknamed ‘the barbershop’ with black-nosed butterflyfish ruthlessly picking parasites off any visiting shark.
Prickly sharks
Prickly sharks, named after their thorn-like skin, are a rare sighting and might only be seen during a submersible dive at depths of 250-400 metres. These predators might spring into hunting mode as the vessel’s light reveal their prey in your pathway.
'Everest' seamount
One of the only island’s seamounts that is still reached by sunlight, Everest is carpeted in corals, reef fish and schools of sharks. A submersible onboard will allow you to sit underwater and watch hundreds of sharks circling overheard, undisturbed.
Here, tropical jungle rises from already towering mountains and waterfalls thunder down onto the beaches below.
Juvenile white tip reef sharks
Hammerhead sharks congregate in the hundreds, sometimes thousands.
A Cocos lobster hides beneath the coral reef
A pink starfish is illuminated by the light of a submersible
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Our favourite yachts for an expedition to Cocos Island
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