Dive Review of Undersea Hunter in
Costa Rica/Cocos Island

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Undersea Hunter, Feb, 2008, by Ed Noga, Ohio, USA ( Sr. Reviewer 10 reports with 6 Helpful votes). Report 3901.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Isla del Cocos via the Undersea Hunter is as good as advertised, 11 days at sea to a fabulous site. We totally lucked out weatherwise, since often the Pacific beats you up on the way to the island. We had flat water all the way there and back again, and only a touch of rain while we were diving. The hammerheads are the main attraction. It's different than in the Galapagos, where schools of dozens of hammerheads cruise just beyond your camera range. At Cocos they come to cleaning stations. The divers hide behind rocks--usually at depths of 100-60 feet--holding their breath to avoid bubbles, and photograph the big boys as they cruise by. Sometimes the sharks come in groups of 5-7, but more often it was 2-3 sharks, big and beautiful. Another special attraction was the night shark dives. Everyone sticks together about six feet off the bottom (OK, more like 2 feet, but we were told to be six feet), shining our lights down on the rocks. The black-tipped reef sharks use the lights to hunt fish, and if they find one--oh my! It's not completely natural, since the sharks are following the lights, but it isn't a stupid shark feed. We did about four dives a day, a couple at 100 feet. There's lots of other sea life, too, about everything you'd want. The crew was outstanding, and the divemasters--Juan Miguel and Edwar--excellent. The boat is quite comfortable, and the cabins really spacious. We also got to visit the island, inhabited only by rangers and volunteers who are trying to stop long-line fishermen from raiding the waters of the marine park. We took a rugged hike to a waterfall where we cooled off in the water. As we sailed home the boat stopped halfway back, and most everyone jumped overboard to swim in the gorgeous, 10,000-feet deep water. This isn't a cheap trip, by any means, but they don't get much better.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	All over, from Lake Erie to Micronesia, from the Caribbean to the Galapagos.
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	68-75°F / 20-24°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	40-150 Ft/ 12-46 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	Everyone was on nitrox, so we had depth limits. Most of the dives were 100 feet or less. They wanted you back in the boat with 400 lbs. We dived in groups of six, always led by the divemaster. We all were provided with transponders, whistles and safety sausages.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	UH caters to photographers, with lots of room for all you equipment and plenty of electrical connections. You dive off pangas, and the captains and crew handle cameras very carefully. Fact is, the divers' interest with getting pictures of hammerheads and feeding reef sharks became an obsession for many. We'd do a dive at a spectacular site, and some people would whine that the viz wasn't good enough for their pictures, making it a lousy dive. I put my camera away halfway through the trip and just enjoyed the diving.

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Dive Review of Undersea Hunter in Costa Rica/Cocos Island

Undersea Hunter, Feb, 2008,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Undersea Hunter in
Costa Rica/Cocos Island