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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Cocos Island location page.
Overview
A 150 m basalt islet off the north-east corner of Cocos with three named dives: a deep outside wall holding scalloped hammerhead cleaning stations at 21–24 m, an inside coral garden running 12–21 m, and the channel between the islet and the main island. Tiger sharks patrol the blue, barberfish work the cleaning stations on the wall, and the after-dark version is the most famous whitetip-reef-shark hunting dive in the world — dozens of sharks swarming the reef on a single torch beam.
Briefing note
All Cocos diving requires a Costa Rican national park permit, included in the liveaboard fee. The night dive at Manuelita Inside is the signature event — dozens of whitetip reef sharks hunt across the reef under torch light; experienced buoyancy and a strong primary torch with backup are essential. Surge and downcurrents are common at the outside cleaning stations. Nitrox is strongly recommended for the back-to-back deep profiles across a typical 10-night itinerary.
What you'll see
7 species curated- year-roundScalloped hammerhead
- year-roundWhitetip reef shark
- year-roundTiger shark
- year-roundGalapagos shark
- year-roundMarble ray
- seasonalWhale sharkPeak: Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov
- seasonalManta ray
Sightings evidence
1 record on file- high confidenceScalloped hammerhead
- Last confirmed
- Nov 2025
- Recent records
- 65 within 50 km
Sources & methodology
How we summarise this
We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.
Sources
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
- Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
- Wildbook (Sharkbook, Whale Shark, Manta Matcher) — Wild Me
- OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
- iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
- WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
- FishBase — FishBase Consortium
- Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
- REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation
Conditions
| Month | Water | Visibility | Current |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 25–27 °C | 15–25 m | strong |
| Feb | 26–28 °C | 20–30 m | moderate |
| Mar | 27–28 °C | 20–30 m | moderate |
| Apr | 27–28 °C | 20–30 m | moderate |
| May | 26–28 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Jun | 25–27 °C | 10–20 m | moderate |
| Jul | 25–27 °C | 10–20 m | moderate |
| Aug | 25–27 °C | 10–20 m | moderate |
| Sep | 25–27 °C | 10–20 m | moderate |
| Oct | 25–27 °C | 10–20 m | moderate |
| Nov | 25–27 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Dec | 25–27 °C | 15–25 m | strong |
Season calendar
Peak season highlighted · current month outlined
Next step
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