Wahoo Rock — Coiba National Park

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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Coiba National Park location page.

Overview

Pacific seamount off Coiba Island drawing big fish to upwellings — schooling hammerheads, whitetip reef sharks, and dense bait balls. Cold thermoclines and current make it a serious dive, but the pelagic action ranks with the best in the eastern Pacific.

What you'll see

4 species curated

Scalloped hammerhead
seasonal
Peak: Dec · Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr
Whitetip reef shark
year-round
Wahoo
seasonal
Pacific green turtle
year-round

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Scalloped hammerhead
medium confidence
Last confirmed
Apr 2026
Recent records
45 within 50 km
Cluster months
Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
Wildbook (Sharkbook, Whale Shark, Manta Matcher) — Wild Me
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	24–26 °C	15–25 m	strong
Feb	24–26 °C	15–25 m	strong
Mar	25–27 °C	15–25 m	strong
Apr	26–28 °C	15–25 m	moderate
May	27–29 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Jun	27–29 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Jul	27–29 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Aug	27–29 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Sep	27–29 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Oct	26–28 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Nov	25–27 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Dec	24–26 °C	15–25 m	strong

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

Temperate wetsuit — Thermoclines drop sharply on the seamount.
Reef hook — Hooking in at the up-current edge keeps you on the cleaning station.

Next step

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Hotels, liveaboards, dive operators, gear recommendations, and travel logistics for the whole region.

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