Trip Report Diving in Cocos Dec. 2020 Trip Report

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Wanna see a 7-day live-aboard Galapagos trip?
Humboldt Explorer Jan 13-20, 2020 - Humboldt Explorer Jan 13-20, 2020.
And here are my research notes from planning a Galapagos trip.

If you like tiger sharks, Jupiter, FL (shark fed dives) and Tiger Beach in the Bahamas are also alternatives. I've been to Jupiter, but not Cocos Island or Tiger Beach.
I read your report of your Galapagos trip and was very thorough and very helpful. Thank you! This is my reason for wanting to go there. Husband and i have the savings now, are young in our early and late 30s and at least it sounds to be once in a life time experience. Like you said we may or may not have the funds or health later and I am just itching to see a lot of sharks other than the typical nurse shark in the Caribbean and all the other big stuff that we may potentially be able to see. But I guess how would you compare your Galapagos experience to all the other dive trips you've done. Are the challenging dives worth it or you would prefer now that you have base for comparison, more chill enjoyable diving in the Caribbean...Did you find it as thrilling as you were expecting it to be? If one has one chance and can pick between Galapagos, Cocos and Socorro? Just trying to determine if the investment is worth all the hype. Although I am sure it's hard to determine and people have different perspectives. Thanks again :)
 
The diving
We did 23 diving during the 7-day of diving around Cocos, as shown in Table 1, three dives / day on Day 1, 3 and 4; four dives / day on Day 2, 5 and 6; two dives on Day 7, the last day of the trip, as we had to sail home after the second dive, so we would be in Putarenas in the evening of 10 December at high tide. The divemaster would ring a bell 15 minutes before the scheduled dive, for donning the wetsuit and dive briefing before getting on to the pangas. Typical 3-dives / day schedule is as follows:

06:30 – breakfast
07:30 – dive 1
11:00 – dive 2
13:00 – lunch
15:30 – dive 3
19:00 – dinner

For a four-dive day schedule, dive 1 would be ~ 6:30, before breakfast; dive 2 would be ~ 10:30; dive 3 would be ~ 12:30 and dive 4 would be ~ 15:30. No diving is allowed after 17:00. This rule was set after the diving accident happened in November 2017, when a tiger shark attacked and killed a diver. After each dive, when we were back on the liveaboard, we would be provided with some water, fruit juice, fruit bits (pineapple, watermelon, orange, cantaloupe, mango, etc.) for hydration.

Day 1 at Cocos
The first day of diving was fantastic. Water temperature was about 75-79°F. Dive 1 in Chatham Bay, 50 feet depth. It’s calm & shallow dive site, a good place for checkout dive. We saw White-tip Reef sharks, Marbled ray, Guineafowl puffer, Spiny lobster, schooling snapper & goatfish.

Dive 2 in Manuelita Channel, 92 feet depth, was epic. We saw some Hammerhead sharks and my first Tiger shark, as shown in Figure 6, below.


View attachment 632372
Figure 6: Big-mama Tiger shark cruising around Manuelita Channel dive site in Cocos.


Dive 3 in Manuelita Coral Garden, 71 feet depth, was more biodiverse than the first two dives. We saw Hammerhead shark, Whitetip Reef shark, Peacock flounder, Garden eels, Marbled ray, Panamic Green moray, Guineafowl puffer, Pacific creolefish, Glasseye snapper, Leather bass, schooling goatfish & Blue-Gold snapper.


Day 2 at Cocos
This is a four dives / day excursion. So, we started early for Dive 4. We went to Dirty Rock, 95 feet depth. We saw lots of schooling Bigeye jack, which meant not much Hammerhead sharks to be seen, but there were some Galapagos sharks. There were some schoolings of snappers and Panamic soldierfish.

Dive 5 was in Punta Maria, 98 feet depth, with panga tied on to a buoy and we descent along anchor line to the bottom. This site is where Galapagos sharks like to hangout. We also saw Pacific creolefish, free swimming Fine-spotted moray, schooling of Bluefin trevally and Bigeye jack.

Dive 6 was back in Dirty Rock with better daylight for Hammerhead shark sighting, as they don’t like video light. We saw some Hammerhead sharks this time. There were also more sighting of Galapagos sharks, flounder, fuciliers and Pacific creolefish.

Dive 7 was back to Manuelita Channel and Coral Garden,100 feet depth. We saw big-mama Tiger shark again cruising at the bottom. Some Whitetip Reef sharks were swimming below us and Hammerhead sharks in the blue. After nearing to deplete our remaining bottom time and seeing no more shark sighting in the blue, we moved on to shallow towards Manuelita Coral Garden. There we saw Harlequin shrimp munching a piece of sea-star limp inside rock piling cavity, next to giant frogfish, as shown in Figure 7, below.

View attachment 632373
Figure 7: Harlequin shrimps munching a piece of sea-star limp inside rock piling

Day 3 at Cocos
This is a three dive / day excursion since the dive sites are on the other side of Cocos island, requiring 20-30 minutes of panga rides from Chatham Bay. Dive 8 was in Submerged Rock, 105 feet depth, seeing another Tiger shark (a skinny one). This site was also very fishy. We saw Whitetip Reef sharks, Marbled ray, Green moray, pufferfish, box fish, Bluefin trevally, and schooling snappers. We also saw reef creatures such as Spiny lobsters and Day octopus.

Dive 9 was in Alcyone, 105 feet depth. It is similar to Punta Maria, where the panga was tied on to a buoy and we descent along anchor line to the bottom. We had thermocline at the bottom with temperature down to 70 °F. We saw octopus, Whitetip Reef shark, Marbled ray, Hammerhead sharks, morays, Galapagos shark, Blue-gold snapper.

Dive 10 was back in Dirty Rock, 108 feet depth. We saw, the usual suspects (Whitetip Reef sharks, Hammerhead sharks, schooling snappers & Bigeye jack).


Day 4 at Cocos
Th is is another three dive / day excursion with long boat rides. Dive 11 was in Small Dos Amigos, 103 feet depth. We saw Galapagos shark, Hammerhead sharks, lots of Barber fish wanting to clean the Hammerhead sharks, swimming Green moray, and schooling Whitemouth jack.

Dive 12 was in Big Dos Amigos, 98 feet depth, We saw Whitetip Reef shark, Galapagos shark, Rockmover wrasse, Giant hawkfish, schooling Bigeye jack, snapper and wahoo in the blue during safety stop.

Dive 13 was in Manuelita Outside, 86 feet depth. We saw the big-mama Tiger shark again and the usual suspects, i.e., Hammerhead sharks.

Day 5 at Cocos
This is another four dives / day excursion. The boat moved to a more centrally located in Wafer Bay to save sometime of panga rides. For Dive 14 was back in Manuelita Outside, 92 feet depth, hoping to see the wall of schooling Hammerhead sharks in the blue, but none had shown up, yet, just some individuals swimming by. ☹ As bottom time dwindling, we decided to move on to the shallow with the wall on our right shoulder. Then some interesting fishes started to show up. An eagle ray went cruising by my side. We swam with it for few minutes. Towards the end of our dive, a Yellow-fin tuna passed by. Huge school of Bigeye jack were swarming us like hail falling from the sky.

Dive 15 was back to Dirty Rock, 84 feet depth. We saw Hammerhead sharks, Whitetip Reef sharks, Marbled ray, Black jack, schooling of Bigeye jack, Blue-gold snappers.

Dive 16 was back in Punta Maria, 100 feet depth, where huge Galapagos sharks cruising by. A fine-spotted moray eel happened to swim by my side while we were hunkered down waiting for the Galapagos shark parade to go by. We also saw Panamic Fang blenny, Marbled ray, schooling snapper and Bluefin trevallies. During our safety stop in the blue, Silvertip shark and Galapagos shark swam by, checking us up.

Dive 17 was back in Manuelita Channel, 84 feet depth. We saw the usual suspects, i.e., big-mama Tiger shark, Hammerhead sharks, Marbled ray. When our bottom time was about spent, we swam up to Manuelita Coral Garden to see the resident Giant frogfish (we saw 3 of them) and the Harlequin shrimp, still fiesting on sea star piece. When I was in Raja Ampat, I knew a DM who brought a sea star to Harlequin shrimp nest to feed them. I wonder if it is similar case here. We also saw schooling of Moorish Idol and Yellow-tail surgeonfish, a unique Snow-flake coral.


Day 6 at Cocos
This is our last four dives / day excursion. Dive 18 was in Shark Fin Rock, 105 feet depth. We saw Marbled ray, Almaco jack, Bluefin trevally, Whitetip Reef shark, various schooling fishes (Yellowfin surgeonfish, Blue-gold snapper, Red snapper, Bigeye jack).

Dive 19 was in Ulloa, 112 feet depth, to see Redlip batfish. We saw 3 of them. We also saw huge Marbled ray, Qoaker fish (jawfish?), Garden eels, Almaco jack, and Mexican hogfish.

Dive 20 was back in Manuelita Outside, 100 feet depth. We saw some Hammerhead sharks being cleaned by Barber fish, Whitetip Reef sharks, schoolings of Burrito grunt, Amarillo snapper and Bigeye jack.

Dive 21 was a repeat of Dive 20, 85 feet depth. Still no schooling of Hammerhead sharks in the blue was seen. We saw the similar fish that we saw earlier in Dive 20, except for a couple additional fishes, i.e., schooling Leather bass and two Yellowfin tuna near the end of our dive.

Day 7 at Cocos
This is our last diving day with two dives in the morning. It was rainy day and dark. Dive 22 was in Dirty Rock, 90 feet depth. We saw the usual suspects.

Dive 23 was in Manuelita Outside, 88 feet depth. Still no schooling of Hammerhead shark had shown up. On the way back to Chatham Bay, the water was muddy from Cocos soil runoff.


Conclusions
The seven days of diving in Cocos this time has been another great diving experience, especially after nine-moth being grounded by the pandemic. Although no Whaleshark, Oceanic manta ray and schooling of Hammerhead sharks were seen this time and poorer visibility in comparison to my previous trip to Cocos in September 2018, we see new fishes that I haven’t seen there before, like the Tiger sharks, Silvertip shark, Eagle ray and Redlip batfish. Kudos to Okeanos Aggressor 1 for allowing us to make 23 dives, 3 more dives than what was normally done in the past.

Did you enjoy in terms of diving, thrill, marine life the Galapagos better or the Cocos. Always thought that I would love diving the Galapagos just trying to decide if the hype is real and if Cocos or Socorro Islands are just as thrilling and enjoyable and once in a life time trips as compare to the Galapagos. Thank you!
 
Did you enjoy in terms of diving, thrill, marine life the Galapagos better or the Cocos. Always thought that I would love diving the Galapagos just trying to decide if the hype is real and if Cocos or Socorro Islands are just as thrilling and enjoyable and once in a life time trips as compare to the Galapagos. Thank you!

Yes, Galapagos is better than Cocos, in terms of biodiversity. Besides seeing the usual suspects (sharks, rays, jacks, eels, snappers, etc.) you'll see mola molas, sea lions, marine iguanas, giant tortoises, birds, etc. If you want to see more sharks in closed encounter, including tiger sharks, then Cocos is the place. If you want to see giant oceanic mantas & friendly dolphins, then you go to Socorro (I'll be heading to Socorro for the 2nd time tomorrow).

Diving in Galapagos would be similar to Cocos and Socorro, i,e., you go down to the rocks (not much corals there), hang on to a rock with your left hand while taking pictures with your right hand. Just be aware of urchins that might poke you and give you tattoos right through your gloves or wetsuits. The only thing I don't like about Galapagos is the dang-cold Humboldt current. I had to wear 7mmm wetsuit. I'm going back there for the 2nd & 3rd times in November on Galapagos Master II 2 week back-to-back trips.

You don't lose 3 days of crossing from the mainland to the islands like going to Isla del Coco (Cocos) or similarly, 2 days of crossing to Revillagigedos (Socorro). You fly to Galapagos and start diving along the way, as you cross to the north side of Galapagos (Darwin & Wolf islands),
 
Like you said we may or may not have the funds or health later and I am just itching to see a lot of sharks other than the typical nurse shark in the Caribbean and all the other big stuff that we may potentially be able to see. But I guess how would you compare your Galapagos experience to all the other dive trips you've done. Are the challenging dives worth it or you would prefer now that you have base for comparison, more chill enjoyable diving in the Caribbean...Did you find it as thrilling as you were expecting it to be? If one has one chance and can pick between Galapagos, Cocos and Socorro?

I haven't been to Cocos or the Socorros. The 'name brand' aspect of the Galapagos (everybody's heard of it, has the giant tortoises), and possibly of seeing marine iguanas, that drew me in.

It really was something special; my only complaint was the viz. That much life in the waters cries out for great viz. Seeing dozens of hammerheads? Oh, yeah. Getting a good photo of one? Uhhh... Be mindful one trip won't necessarily expose you to all the diversity. Our trip didn't go where you dive with marine iguanas (but I saw them basking on rocky shoreline on San Cristobal Island) or see Galapagos penguins, or where Mola Molas are more likely to be seen, and it was the wrong time of year for awhile sharks. But Darwin's Arch was primordial...motoring away in the panga with dolphins breaching around us is a treasured memory.

If you want to see sharks other than nurse and Caribbean reef, you can, but there are other options. If shark feed diving doesn't bother you, it can be a lot cheaper to do some dives with Emerald Charters out of Jupiter, FL, where the tiger sharks were plenty big enough for me, but not any 15 feet!

I suggest you either make a trip to North Carolina to dive with sand tiger sharks, or Jupiter to dive (if you don't want shark feeding dives, go during the lemon shark aggregation in winter). I think there's something to be said for getting some medium-large shark experience with less potentially dangerous sharks before you put yourself in the position of diving with a large tiger shark.

Speaking of which, tiger sharks are less common in the Socorros and I haven't read of them in the Galapagos, so if you specifically want tiger sharks, Cocos wins of those 3 destinations.

Compared to the Caribbean? I love both. Very glad to have some big animal experience; very glad I got to shore dive Bonaire!
 
First off, thank you to Dan and drrich2 for all of your informative and helpful posts. I truly enjoy them. For Meggie, we've been to Cocos and Socorro and just decided not to go to Galapagos with our LDS in January 2022. I'll explain why later. We're the opposite of you in terms of where we're at in life, mid to later 60s. Here's my two cents: Socorro is an easier trip than Cocos and has great mantas and sharks, though the hammerheads are not that close. We went during whale season and it was amazing to watch a mom and baby for 3 days at Roca Partida, along with a pod of 40 or so dolphins. That said, the closeness of the hammers in Cocos was beyond all expectations. Huggable close. The current and water temps at both places were well within our tolerance...even at our "advanced years". :) My wife was quite sick on the way to Cocos, but fine on the return trip. Lots of the folks had some form of sea sickness on the way there...it was "unusually rough" according to the crew.
Why not Galapagos next year: It was a terribly tough call. We have to weigh what trips and when, especially in the age of covid. We weigh water conditions, Galagaos is colder and we hate cold...even though I teach in 50-60 degree water at our quarry. Most importantly, we've now done what we believe to be the best hammerhead encounter trip we could ever do..... Cocos. Since hammers are is a big draw for Galapagos, it isn't as much for us. However, as Dan said, Galagapos has much more diversity. So, if we hadn't done Socorro and Cocos and wanted to pick which one of the three to do now, it would be Galapagos. A few days hiking and sightseeing around Quito then all that Galapagos has to offer would be my choice. However, since we have done Socorro and Cocos, 2022 shall be Palau for something totally different. Hopefully, with a hiking trip to Scotland thrown in for good measure. You will love all of these trips so making sure you actually go is the key.
Have a blast wherever you go.

Rob
 
@Meggie one tip for diving in Eastern Pacific Ocean, bring good gloves to protect your hands from getting cuts by sharp rocks or barnacles.

I captured the close encounters of the hammer kind in Cocos that Rob is referring to in this video, below.

 
@Meggie one tip for diving in Eastern Pacific Ocean, bring good gloves to protect your hands from getting cuts by sharp rocks or barnacles.

I captured the close encounters of the hammer kind in Cocos that Rob is referring to in this video, below.

What brand of gloves do you recommend and thickness? Thank you so much for sharing!
 
@Meggie one tip for diving in Eastern Pacific Ocean, bring good gloves to protect your hands from getting cuts by sharp rocks or barnacles.

I captured the close encounters of the hammer kind in Cocos that Rob is referring to in this video, below.

This is AMAZING! I AM DREAMING OF MEETING THOSE BEAUTIES!
 
Yes, Galapagos is better than Cocos, in terms of biodiversity. Besides seeing the usual suspects (sharks, rays, jacks, eels, snappers, etc.) you'll see mola molas, sea lions, marine iguanas, giant tortoises, birds, etc. If you want to see more sharks in closed encounter, including tiger sharks, then Cocos is the place. If you want to see giant oceanic mantas & friendly dolphins, then you go to Socorro (I'll be heading to Socorro for the 2nd time tomorrow).

Diving in Galapagos would be similar to Cocos and Socorro, i,e., you go down to the rocks (not much corals there), hang on to a rock with your left hand while taking pictures with your right hand. Just be aware of urchins that might poke you and give you tattoos right through your gloves or wetsuits. The only thing I don't like about Galapagos is the dang-cold Humboldt current. I had to wear 7mmm wetsuit. I'm going back there for the 2nd & 3rd times in November on Galapagos Master II 2 week back-to-back trips.

You don't lose 3 days of crossing from the mainland to the islands like going to Isla del Coco (Cocos) or similarly, 2 days of crossing to Revillagigedos (Socorro). You fly to Galapagos and start diving along the way, as you cross to the north side of Galapagos (Darwin & Wolf islands),
What gloves do you dive with, recommend diving with? What are your dates in Nov for Galapagos? Are they full?
 

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