ISLA DEL COCO"the most beautiful island in the world"

-Jacques Cousteau

GEOGRAPHY

• 550km (340mi)

• Puntarenas

• Pacific Ocean

• 23.85km2

• 23.3km

• 1 1/2* N of the Equator

ORIGINS

• Volcanic and tectonic

• Only island in the Cocos plate

• Basalt (cooling lava)

• Oldest rocks 1.9 - 2.4

ISLA DEL COCO

• National park

• 1978

• 1997km2

• New 7 wonders

• #2 island category

CERRO IGLESIAS

• 575.5m

LAND FAUNA

• 400 known species of insects

• 2 species of lizards

• Around 90 species of birds

• 5 mammal species

MARINE FAUNA

• 30+ species of coral

• 60 species of crustaceans

• 600 species of mollusks

• 300 species of fish

• Large p. of yellow fin tuna, manta rays, sharks

• Humpback and Pilot whales

• Dolphins

• Sea Lions

• Turtles

DIVING

• Top 10 PADI diving spots

• Big species

• Hammerhead

Whale shark Manta ray

Leather-back turtle

PROBLEMS

• Shark finning

• Fishing

• Introduced species

SHARK FINNING

FISHING

INTRODUCED SPECIES

• 5 land mammals

• Pigs, Cats, Deer, Rats

• 2 plants

• Passion fruit

• Matapalo

FUN FACTS

• Pirates used Isla del Coco to resupply

• Jurassic Park

• The Michael Crichton novel Jurassic Park centers on the fictitious "Isla Nublar" that is off of the west coast of Costa Rica. Isla del Coco may be the inspiration for this island. Supporting this argument is the Dreamworks Interactive game Jurassic Park: Trespasser (1998) which used Cocos Island's topography as a substitute for the fictional island on which it takes place. Also, "Isla Nublar" is intended to mean "Cloudy Island", and Cocos Island is the only island with cloud forests in the eastern Pacific.

• Dessert island (Robinson Crusoe)

PIRACY & HIDDEN TREASURES

• The first claims of treasure buried on the island came from a woman named Mary Welsh, who claimed 350 tons of gold raided from Spanish galleons had been buried on the island. She had been a member of a pirate crew lead by Captain Bennett Graham, and was transported to an Australian penal colony for her crimes. She possessed a chart showing where Graham's treasure was supposed to be hidden. On her release she returned to the island with an expedition, which had no success in finding anything, with the points of reference in the chart having disappeared.

• Another pirate supposed to have buried treasure on the island was the Portuguese Benito Bonito. Though Bonito was hunted down and executed, his treasure was never retrieved.

• The best known of the treasure legends tied to the island is that of the Treasure of Lima. In 1820, with the army of José de San Martín approaching Lima, Viceroy José de la Serna is supposed to have entrusted treasure from the city to British trader Captain William Thompson for safekeeping until the Spaniards could secure the country. Instead of waiting in the harbor as they were instructed, Thompson and his crew killed the Viceroy's men and sailed to Cocos, where they buried the treasure. Shortly afterwards, they were apprehended by a Spanish warship. All of the crew bar Thompson and his first mate were executed for piracy. The two said they would show the Spaniards where they had hidden the treasure in return for their lives - but after landing on Cocos, they escaped away into the forest.

• Hundreds of attempts to find treasure on the island have failed. Several early expeditions were mounted on the basis of claims by a man named Keating, who was supposed to have befriended Thompson. On one trip, Keating was said to have retrieved gold and jewels from the treasure. Prussian adventurer August Gissler lived on the island for most of the period from 1889 until 1908, hunting the treasure with the small success of finding six gold coins.

M.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=UATG9IFPOT4