Isla Del Coco is an uninhabited island situated approximately 550 km (340 mi) from the Pacific shore of Costa Rica. Cocos Island is one of the far reaches of the world, it is a pirate’s paradise with abandoned treasures buried throughout its jungle, it is the beautiful dinosaur haven of Jurassic Park, it is rich in wildlife and it is known to divers as a ‘Shark Island’. It is an almost untouched area of the ocean.

The Undersea Hunter Group has been running dive tours to Cocos Island for over 20 years. We boarded the Sea Hunter, one of three boats in the fleet, at Puntarenas on the pacific coast of Costa Rica. After 32 hours travelling, we arrived in Chatham Bay on the North side of Cocos Island. The topside scenery is spectacular; no beaches, just trees and big rocky cliffs, waterfalls and mist.

Everything at Cocos is very dramatic – the topside scenery as well as the underwater sea-scapes. Big boulders, rock walls and pinnacles are surrounded by schools of snapper, goatfish, trevally and whitetip sharks. Sometimes a school of 50 or more hammerheads would pass overhead, creating beautiful silhouettes. Every dive is completely different – we went to the same dive sites over and over again and everything changes. The cleaning stations move, the number of sharks is variable, you never know what to expect.

There are two things that Cocos Island is particularly famous for; strong currents and Hammerhead sharks.

The strong currents and nutrient rich water that entices a variety of wildlife mean you sacrifice clear water but this didn’t take away from my experience. The hammerheads would slowly idle up to the barber fish cleaning stations and roll onto their sides as the small fish cleaned their cuts.

The Deep See Submersible is a custom built one atmosphere submarine that can carry one pilot and two passengers and it is capable of diving to 1500ft. The Undersea Hunter Group has been operating the submersible at Cocos Island since 2006 for marine research, filmmaking and tourist dives. Unfortunately my plans to help with the DeepSee Submersible research didn’t work out but I was able to see the sub and learn more about the work that they do.

Dives with the sub have provided photographs and video of species that were thought to be absent in the Eastern Pacific as well as entirely new species. It has also found that the hammerheads that school at the surface during the day descend at night to feed.

During the trip I met Jay Ireland and Georgienne Bradley from SeaSave Foundation, a conservation organisation that has a strong focus on Cocos Island. SeaSave’s approach is to increase awareness about the controversial illegal shark finning that is taking place within the National Park.

A current volunteer, William Henriques, has a daily blog about the Park Rangers day to day activities and the efforts to enforce the laws of the area. It is a very interesting insight into the frustrating systems and processes that the rangers are unsuccessfully trying to enforce.

The sheer numbers of animal at Cocos Island was overwhelming. We saw bait balls with dolphins and tuna, schools of hammerheads, innumerable whitetip sharks, turtles, moray eels, large schools of snapper, trevally and goatfish, huge manta rays, devil rays and marble rays. Everywhere you look there was something spectacular!

On one of the first dives I was thinking to myself that this is untouched; this is what the entire ocean would be like if we humans weren’t so determined to fish until there is nothing left. It is clear from talking with the rangers, the Undersea Hunter staff and SeaSave that this isn’t the case – the fishing that is still taking place in the National Park is killing not just hundreds of sharks but anything that comes into contact with the long lines. Hopefully these people that are working so hard to increase awareness and support for the enforcement of regulations are able to make a difference before this incredibly rich environment suffers the same as so many others all over the world.

The Undersea Hunter Group has been very generous and helpful during my stay in Costa Rica. The crew of the Sea Hunter work incredibly hard to make everything run smoothly but never let the entertainment and enjoyment stop. Capitan Raul runs a great ship and Chipopa did a fantastic job as Cruise Director and dive guide. Thanks to Alan Steenstrup and Shmulik Blum for organising my visit. I am so lucky to have experienced what can only be described as ‘Cocos’.