Punta Maria - Cocos Island
Punta Maria offers a classic Cocos experience, with a good chance to see schooling hammerheads in the blue. Keep an eye out for white-tip reef sharks patrolling the reef edges, and sometimes a silvertip will cruise by. It's a site best suited for advanced divers comfortable with potential currents and deeper profiles, as the action often happens further out.
- Location
- Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Central America
- Coordinates
- 5.531074, -87.091200
Marine Protected Area: Isla del Coco
Nearby Dive Sites in Cocos Island
- Alcyone - 25-40m (cave)
- Bait Balls
- Bajo Alcyone (pinnacle)
- Bajo Dos Amigos
- Dirty Rock - 15-40m (pinnacle)
- Dirty Rock
- Dos Amigos - Big
- Dos Amigos Grande
- Dos Amigos Pequeño - 15-30m (pinnacle)
- Dos Amigos - Small
- Isla Cascara - 15-35m (wall)
- Isla Manuelita - 10-35m (wall)
- Isla Pajara
- Lobster Rock
- Manuelita Deep
Marine Life in Cocos Island
Home to 291 recorded species including 245 reef fish, 28 sharks & rays, 8 whales & dolphins, 3 other, 3 sea cucumbers, 1 starfish.
Notable Species
- Agujon Needlefish (Tylosurus acus) - Reef Fish
- Blackfish (Melichthys niger) - Reef Fish
- Salmon (Elagatis bipinnulata) - Reef Fish
- Cortez Rainbow Wrasse (Thalassoma lucasanum) - Reef Fish
- Kawakawa (Euthynnus affinis) - Reef Fish
- Notchfin Blenny (Entomacrodus chiostictus) - Reef Fish
- Ocean Triggerfish (Canthidermis maculata) - Reef Fish
- Giant Hawkfish (Cirrhitus rivulatus) - Reef Fish
- Coral Hawkfish (Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus) - Reef Fish
- Kingston (Decapterus macarellus) - Reef Fish
- Devilfish (Ophioblennius atlanticus) - Reef Fish
- Mexican hogfish (Bodianus diplotaenia) - Reef Fish
- Ring-tailed Surgeonfish (Acanthurus xanthopterus) - Reef Fish
- Scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) - Sharks & Rays
- Giant damselfish (Microspathodon dorsalis) - Reef Fish
- Kihikihi (Zanclus cornutus) - Reef Fish
- Cowfish (Tursiops truncatus) - Whales & Dolphins
- Bluefish (Kyphosus vaigiensis) - Reef Fish
- Whitetip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus) - Sharks & Rays
- Glasseye Snapper (Heteropriacanthus cruentatus) - Reef Fish