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Unlike many bucket-list dive
destinations, Cocos is in no way
reminiscent of a beer commercial.
Sunny, white-sand beaches lapped by
warm, gentle surf are not a feature of
this feral island. Rather, beaches here
are composed of coconut-sized rocks
rimmed by large, crashing swell, and
with an average annual precipitation
of more than 275 inches, rain is a
probability that cannot be avoided.
Many Cocos veterans actually prefer
to travel here during the rainy season,
when cool upwelling from deep water
provides sharks with ideal metabolic
conditions. For some visitors, this
season is not as attractive, because
other features of the rainy season
include multiple thermoclines, cool
water temperatures, variable visibility
and swelling, surging seas. Cocos has a
wild reputation to uphold, after all, and
this means untamed conditions both
above and below the ocean’s surface.
Divers tend to find it easy to forgive
this caveat when they find themselves
looking up at a school of hundreds of
scalloped hammerhead sharks.
ANYTHING BUT TAME
Most visitors get their introduction to
the diving here at
Manuelita
, a small
islet at the north end of Cocos Island.
The protected, inside sites of Manuelita
offer coral gardens in shallow, calm water
with minimal current. Divers are still
treated to a fantastic sampling of marine
life, including whitetip reef sharks by the
dozen, orange frogfish, schools of trevally
and snapper, sea turtles and marbled
rays. In recent years people have even
reported seeing tiger sharks here, making
for orientation dives that are anything but
tame. The exposed backside of Manuelita
offers a more classic Cocos experience —
its steep, boulder-strewn slope is home
to many cleaning stations, attracting
scalloped hammerhead and silky sharks.
A resident school of horse-eye jacks and
the occasional manta ray flyby make
watching the blue easy to do. Manuelita
is also the typical site for spooky night
dives: Whitetip reef sharks, already
abundant during the daylight, gather in
huge tangles of teeth, fins and tails once
the sun sets, using divers’ lights to help
them locate their prey.
Once visiting divers are acclimated
to the conditions at Cocos, divemasters
will begin introducing them to some of
the more advanced signature sites. One
example is guano-covered
Dirty Rock
(
Roca Sucia
) on the north side of Cocos
Island. This jagged pinnacle rises 15
odiferous feet above the ocean surface,
but its underwater features provide a
stark contrast to its unappealing topside
appearance. On one visit, I backrolled
directly into a huge, churning baitball
Opposite: A scalloped hammerhead shark enters one of Cocos
Island’s numerous cleaning stations near Punta Maria.
Right: A curious octopus sits as hundreds of hammerhead sharks
swim overhead near Alcyone.
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12/21/11