TOP 5 things to see in Coiba Island (2025)

  Second dive trip with Dive Base Coiba - Long overdue review, but my son, friend and I did our second weekend with Kevan Mantell in late November. Once again, truly an amazing weekend. Saw dozens of white tipped... read more reef sharks, sea turtles, schools of tuna, corvina, etc.

On our last dive, second day, we saw an enormous sea turtle that appeared at first to have gotten wedged between a couple of rocks on the sea floor. We watched him closely for about 5 minutes, and eventually he got loose and swam away.

As I wrote last time, diving with Kevan really is like participating in a research expedition.
During our latest trip, he even let us participate in helping contribute to his research in our own small way. One of the divers who joined us brought a drone and Kevan asked him to take photographs and video of the coral beds in one of the bays that he could use to build out a more comprehensive research map of the area.

His knowledge of the area is extraordinary. When you arrive to Dive Base Coiba, he has this huge map of the Coiba National Park on the wall, and he'll give you a really comprehensive overview of the marine biology, environmental history, geological history, and even political history (Coiba Island was the site of a notorious prison during the Noriega years) of the area. Fascinating stuff.

At another point while we were at the surface, Kevan stopped the boat just as a pod of dolphins was swimming towards us. Kevan urged us to jump in with snorkels and mask. We watched as they whooshed by right underneath us. Incredible.

The other thing about Kevan: He gives his full attention and professionalism to every one of his clients whether its recreational divers like us; professional and research divers from National Geographic, the European Space Agency, or BBC: or his VIP clients like Mick Jagger, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones, and several well known billionaires (yes, he's taken them all diving at Coiba) He puts a premium on safety and will walk you through a full safety briefing before every dive and do several safety check ins during your dives.

We'll be heading back for our third trip in 2018.