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 For the ultimate in big fish diving anywhere in the world, you won’t get any better than the big fish action in the Cocos Islands.
The island is about the size of Little Barrier, lying 290km off the coast of Costa Rica, Central America. The only way to get there is by boat – normally a smooth sailing as Cocos lie just off the Equator, in the doldrums. As the crow flies, Cocos is only 600km north of the Galapagos Islands, and is blessed with 2 warm tropical currents plus a deepwater colder current that hits Cocos, creating upwellings which bring all the food and nutrients with it. It is this vast natural supermarket that all the big fish of the ocean come to feast.
 Cocos is a marine reserve. Here you learn to expect the unexpected, where the “eat or be eaten” ecosystem is taken to the limits. You literally have to kick the harmless white tip reef sharks off the bottom as you explore the rocky reefs in search of other smaller critters. That is, if you can’t stop looking at all the big fish action that always seems to be non stop. Here, you often drop into a “work up”: birds, tuna, sail fish, marlin, whales and dolphins all eating a huge school of baitfish.
 Cocos is not for the faint hearted. It’s not a dangerous or difficult place to dive by NZ standards, but you need to be a confident diver and not afraid of the “razor gang” as there are always lots of sharks around. At Cocos you definitely get your daily dose of adrenalin as you play in this Predators’ Playground.
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