The only facilities on Cocos Island (a national marine park since 1978, 300 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica) are two houses for park rangers and some rest areas for visitors. A liveaboard boat trip is the only way to dive the teeming waters here. Cocos Island, the second largest uninhabited island in the world, is remote: You fly to Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, take a 2.5-hour bus ride to Punta Arenas, then make a 33-hour boat crossing. It may have been Cocos that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write Treasure Island—this is where pirates came to bury booty. But today the glittering prize for visitors is what lies beneath the cobalt blue water. Hammerhead sharks undulate in single file just a few feet away from you, swarms of whitetip sharks, silver walls of jacks, big rays elegantly glide by. Divers explore steep drop-offs, caves and reefs, spotting parrotfish, Moorish idols, yellowtail surgeonfish, hordes of blue-striped snappers, lobsters, puffers, and zebra morays peeking from corals. Only about 2,000 people a year make it to Cocos, so you don’t have to share the best expert-diving spot in the Pacific with too many other underwater hounds.
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After spending three weeks filming in Cocos Island, utilizing both the Argo and the DeepSee submersible, National Geograpic premiered its newest documentary Shark Island to a select group in San Jose, Costa Rica. Some 350 guests were lucky enough to see the screening, including the President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla.
The film will be broadcast live on Monday, April 19, at 9 PM ET/PT on the Nat Geo WILD channel
UNDERSEA HUNTER, USA/COSTA RICA
The Undersea Hunter and her sister ship, The Sea Hunter, both offer high end liveaboard experiences.
Undersea Hunter Group
#SJO 314, 1601 NW 97th Ave
PO Box 025216
Miami, FL 33102-5216, USA
Phone USA: 1-800 - 203 2120
Phone Costa Rica: +506 - 2228 6613
Fax Costa Rica: +506 - 2289 7334
E-Mail: info@underseahunter.com
Web: http://www.underseahunter.com/uh.htm