Diver UK – July 2019

60

HOLIDAY NEWS

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divErNEt.com

Wanted: citizen-scientists in Cocos

It’s OK, it’s a tagger, not a spear!

Turtle Island Restoration Network,

a California-based ocean-

conservation non-profit body,

leads liveaboard dive expeditions

to biodiversity hotspot Cocos

Island off Costa Rica every year,

with guests enabled to work

alongside its team of marine

biologists to conduct shark

counts, photo-document

species, record data, observe

shark-tagging, and more.

Although a National Park and

UNESCO World Heritage site, Cocos

Sharkweek Mozambique with

ScubaAddicts gives you the chance to

visit what Oonasdivers describes as

some of the best shark-diving sites in

Ponta do Ouro.

The varieties that stand to be

encountered are mouth-watering,

including tiger, bull, hammerhead,

oceanic blacktip, raggedtooth, dusky

and guitar sharks.

While the focus is on diving with

as many shark species as possible, the

reefs play host to other big-animal

species too, including whales, dolphins

and manta rays.

ScubaAddicts creates an intimate

diving and dining experience, says the

tour operator, and you pay from

£1895pp for flights, transfers, seven

nights’ B&B and 12 shark dives.

Your stay can also be combined with

one at ScubaAddicts South Africa, or

extended to include a Big 5 Safari,

which includes a hippo and crocodile

cruise plus two days with the usual

suspects: lions, leopards, elephants,

buffalo and rhinos.

oonasdivers.com

Love manta rays? The 12th
Annual Manta Fest Photo Festival
takes place on the island of Yap in
Micronesia from 24 August to 8
September. Run by Manta Ray
bay Resort & Yap Divers, the
annual event brings together
underwater photographers
sharing advice “on the dive-boats,
in the classroom, at the
restaurant and in the bar” for
photographers at all levels, and
now with loan cameras available
for newbies. There is also a photo

competition running throughout

the festival.

Packages range from four

nights / six dives for US $1039pp

to 14 nights / 22 dives from

$3239pp and include hotel room

(two sharing), two-tank dive days,

breakfasts and dinners, airport

transfers, contest entry, seminars,

workshops and evening media

presentations, beach barbecue

and island tour. The maximum

stay includes free nitrox.

mantaray.com

Sharkweek Mozambique

Ready for a load

of bull sharks?

The next intake for

shark specialist

Dr Erich Ritter’s

SharkSchool on

Caribbean Mexico’s

Riviera Maya is on

10-16 December

this year.

Dive-centre chain Pro Dive International prescribes a

package consisting of five days of bull-shark diving with the

good doctor (take twice a day), unlimited free nitrox,

90 minutes of daily seminars, a 4* double room on an all-

inclusive basis and airport transfers between Cancun and

Playacar. It costs US $1499pp.

prodiveinternational.com

of “protected swimways” for

migratory species in the Eastern

Pacific.

The expeditions consist of an

11-day cruise with three or four

dives a day and nitrox available.

Upcoming trips run from 10

December (US $5295), 2 August

2020 ($6445) and 28 November

2020 ($5945)

seaturtles.org/cocos

faces threats including illegal

fishing. TIRN has been carrying on its

work for 10 years to improve

management strategies and

encourage the creation

Start of term for

bull-shark divers

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THOSE MANTA RAYS?

ERIC FALCONI

MANUELITA HERRENO