Cocos Island Expedition — August-September 2024
About Cocos Island: Part 2
Before dusk, some 30 hours later, I hear the boat engines turned off, eagerly awaiting sunrise and my first sighting of Cocos in nearly a year. The sounds of anchor chains clanking, the cranes unloading the skiffs (pangas) that will ferry us to our dive sites and serve as our diving platform, build the anticipation for our first dive in a couple of hours.
Finally, the sun is coming up!
It’s sunrise at Cocos. We are docked in Chatham Bay with a view of the islet Manuelita (on right), and the tip of Cocos Island on left. In between is the “Channel” where one can often find eagle rays riding the rushing current as the sea is forced through the narrow opening (photos by Todd Steiner.)
The island, described by Jacques Cousteau as one of the most beautiful in the world, is a 9 square mile island of tropical forest projecting nearly 2,000 feet out of the sea, terminating in cloud forest at its peak. Many describe it as looking like scenes from the movie “Jurassic Park,” and the giant frigate birds circling overhead (two species, the Great and the Magnificent) looking like mini pterodactyls, add to the feeling.
Frigate bird, photo by Todd Steiner.
Aerial view of Cocos Island.
Nearly 23 feet (7 meters) of annual rain falls on the island to create its lush forests, creating abundant waterfalls that fall from its tall cliffs onto its rocky shores.
One of more than 200 waterfalls at Cocos Island (photo by Todd Steiner.)
On the island you can find three species of endemic birds (the Cocos cuckoo, flycatcher and finch), two species of endemic lizards (Cocos anole and the Least Pacific gecko), three species of fresh-water fish in its streams, and hundreds of endemic plants.
There are no native mammals, only invasive species (deer, rats, pigs which flourish here ), brought by pirates and treasure hunters, who frequented the island for its abundance of fresh water, calm bays, and abundance of bird eggs. The treasure hunters (including Franklin Roosevelt, who visited Cocos four times) believed the island holds the (still unfound) Treasure of Lima, but the true treasure is its amazing beauty and diversity found above and below the waters edge.
Before we begin our first of 21 dives, we receive a detailed briefing of the rules that will help keep us and the fragile habitat safe.
Diving at Cocos is always amazing—and over the next week one has the opportunity to dive multiple times at several habitats. On this trip, we dove at nine separate sites that ranged from relatively shallow coral reefs to deep seamounts, rocky reefs, and sandy bottoms.
Another strange habitat are round “rock” reddish balls that form extensive beds on some sandy bottoms. These “rocks” are actually a calcareous red algae and this unique habitat has its own unique tiny macrofauna.
At our first dive at Dirty Rock to tag hammerheads, I experience something completely new! We hear what sounds like explosions that scatter the sharks and all the other fish every time it happens.
When we eventually surface, we figure out what’s going on. A humpback whale is at the surface and is breaching, the behavior of jumping out of the water landing with a giant splash, the equivalent of a belly flop. The exact reason(s) why whales breach are unknown but may be a non-verbal communication between whales, and or may be a way to stun fish prey to consume.
Humpback whale breaching — the source of the underwater “explosions” we were hearing (photo by Elisa Gaudiosi.)
I have heard many say that their worst dive at Cocos is better than their best dive somewhere else and this is probably because there are so many sharks!
Video by Marta Torne.
If you haven’t yet, please take action to protect the wildlife of Cocos by clicking here and letting the Costa Rican government know we need more action to protect the migration route of Cocos endangered marine life.
In Cocos Log Part 3 and Part 4, we will discuss the amazing underwater life of Cocos and in Part 5, we will discuss our research objectives for this expedition.
