π
2015-07-17 01:01
in Diving
All the pictures below are geotagged, so you can click on them to see where they were taken
Cocos is interesting and different, starting with the fact that it requires a 36H trip each way to get there (no runways and too far to get via helicopter). We chose the Argos since it was part of the dive alliance, which contains the best boats in each location, and because they had a special research trip chartered by TIRN (Turtle Island Restoration Network) that was longer than usual (9 days of diving and 3 days travelling).
Cocos belongs to Costa Rica which we spent a week to visit before the diving trip.
It's a 36H boat trip away from Puntarenas: We got the chance to get talks from Todd, Randall, and Brock about their efforts to save turtles and sharks from overfishing, fishing bycatch, and illegal shark fining. Brock, who volunteers/has volunteered at multiple such organizations, including Sea Shepherds, also joined us. They have been responsible for so much work to help sea life along the years that it was great to learn about it, even if much work still needs to be done. You can read more on the seaturtles.org, Pretoma, Sea Shepherd, and Fin Free sites.
I got a picture with them at the end of our trip: They organized this trip to tag some sharks and turtles (to see their migration patterns and help keep zones fishing free to hopefully help curbing their clear decline) as well as take some tissue samples from some sharks. We also did 2 submarine dives to 100 and 300 meters respectively, as explained on this page Here is the map of what we dived (3 dives a day and just a few night dives): Argos is a big converted boat with a crane to move skiffs and the submarine on and off the boat:
When these two have sex: with those two: You get this :)
this one is "hunting" by blowing on sand to look for things:
This shows sharks bumping into a poor puffer fish and confirming that they don't want to eat it:
Lots of eels, mostly moray eels that have an understanding with sharks, and don't get eaten either:
Plenty of other eels:
Same thing with triggerfish, some of which were quite colorful:
And same thing with rays too, from marble rays, eagle rays, and mobula rays, some were bigger than sharks:
whitetip sharks mating:
Interstingly, sharks didn't seem to eat flounder fish either:
Hell, they don't even eat lobster, they really go after the easy prey:
Lots of sharks, many many whitetip sharks:
Of course, there were plenty of hammerheads, but we're told not nearly as many as there used to be, unfortunately thanks to illegal shark finning, sadly a lot came from Taiwanese boats :(
Usually we got to see hammerheads at cleaning stations. Here, you can see the barberfish which act as cleaning fish. The hammerheads find them and swim in the middle of them:
Other sharks:
But we found some crabs and lobsters, and even a slipper lobster:
On a couple of dives, some wild dolphins came to check us out:
We got to see several huge schools of fish, mostly jacks:
Other misc fishes:
Also, what doesn't help either that tiger sharks have become more abundant in Cocos and like to eat turtles :( But this was a great trip, 9 days of nice diving, plus 72 hours traversing to Cocos and back :) But again, these ecosystems are vanishing fast. The amount of sharks that are being killed just for shark finning, is unbelievable, and the number of turtles and other sea animals thare being killed mistakenly just as bycatch for other seafood we eat, is a huge problem.
Please take a chance to learn more aobut these problems and spread the word, contribute, and/or donate:seaturtles.org
Pretoma
Sea Shepherd
Fin Free
Racing Extinction
You can watch sharkwater here:
It's a 36H boat trip away from Puntarenas: We got the chance to get talks from Todd, Randall, and Brock about their efforts to save turtles and sharks from overfishing, fishing bycatch, and illegal shark fining. Brock, who volunteers/has volunteered at multiple such organizations, including Sea Shepherds, also joined us. They have been responsible for so much work to help sea life along the years that it was great to learn about it, even if much work still needs to be done. You can read more on the seaturtles.org, Pretoma, Sea Shepherd, and Fin Free sites.
I got a picture with them at the end of our trip: They organized this trip to tag some sharks and turtles (to see their migration patterns and help keep zones fishing free to hopefully help curbing their clear decline) as well as take some tissue samples from some sharks. We also did 2 submarine dives to 100 and 300 meters respectively, as explained on this page Here is the map of what we dived (3 dives a day and just a few night dives): Argos is a big converted boat with a crane to move skiffs and the submarine on and off the boat:
the inside was spacious enough
When these two have sex: with those two: You get this :)
this one actually looked pissed off :)
they always look mean, but this one genuinely seemed to be
a tiger shark, those are huge and eat turtles amongst other things
those fish change color from black to white
a collection of fishing hooks collected by the rangers
this bridge was made with confiscated fishing gear
lots of small volcanic islands
Also, what doesn't help either that tiger sharks have become more abundant in Cocos and like to eat turtles :( But this was a great trip, 9 days of nice diving, plus 72 hours traversing to Cocos and back :) But again, these ecosystems are vanishing fast. The amount of sharks that are being killed just for shark finning, is unbelievable, and the number of turtles and other sea animals thare being killed mistakenly just as bycatch for other seafood we eat, is a huge problem.
Please take a chance to learn more aobut these problems and spread the word, contribute, and/or donate:
See more images for Diving Around Cocos Island with Argos