This December 10-20, 2022, a special expedition to Cocos Island National Park and two neighboring Seamounts will take place. A collaboration of the Costa Rican organization CREMA, Turtle Island Restoration Network, and the Sea Change Agency, the expedition will be led by scientist Randall Arauz, 2010 winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
It will take place onboard Okeanos II. This trip should be of special interest to those seeking a career in marine biology and/or operation of sophisticated marine research technology. It will also include 4 days of scuba diving at Cocos Island.
A team of 12 researchers and communicators, from the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala, will be catching and tagging sharks in Cocos Island National Park, monitoring predator abundance with sophisticated video monitoring devices, and deploying acoustic receivers on the summits of neighboring seamounts using a Remote Operating Vehicle (ROV) submersible with the collaboration of MARE. This expedition will have 4 days of scuba diving at Cocos, but the two seamounts that will be visited are too deep for scuba diving. Open water snorkeling at these sites is possible.
Here are some of the highlights of the upcoming expedition:
- 4 full days of diving at Cocos Island National Park–for a total of 12 dives.
- 2 days at Las Gemelas Seamount (40 m southwest of Cocos Island). Acoustic receiver deployment on the summit, and rescue operation of two lost receivers
- No diving, but blue water snorkeling can be done.
- 1 day at West Cocos Seamount (40 nm west of Cocos Island). Deployment of two acoustic receivers
- No diving, but blue water snorkeling can be done.
For more information on this trip contact: Randall Arauz at rarauz@marinewatch.org. Contact is also possible through phone: +506 8708 8253
There will be more expeditions in 2023: our normal 7 days of diving Cocos trips will begin again in 2023 with expeditions in May and November, and are now accepting reservations. For more information, see our page with all the information and details or contact Todd Steiner, TSteiner@TIRN.net, (415) 488-7652
