Photos: Gina Lusandi

It’s time to give you all an insight into another of our local residents. One that, at this time of year, is very frequently spotted, either squished into a hole or traveling across a reef, looking for its next target. One of the most fascinating creatures you may find is the Octopus. We have an abundance of them here in Manuel Antonio and they are spotted, this time of year, on many of the dives, but they are masters of camouflage and unless you know what you are looking for, you may miss them. With their ability to change color, it may look like a white blob on the reef, or if you’ve annoyed it and got too close, it may be flashing red. Not a good sign and not something we want to see as divers, as we like to interact with everything passively. So, to hopefully inspire you a little more, here are some interesting facts about the octopus.

Octopuses or octopi?

It is an ongoing debate about its official plural name as there are three choices in the world that you may have heard. Octopuses, Octopi, and Octopodes. What team are you on? Well, the correct plural is Octopuses. Octopuses may sound peculiar to some, but this is the preferred plural as stated in the English dictionary. If you want to know why exactly Octopi is not used, then hold onto your hats, here is the official explanation:

While “octopi” has become more popular and used, it’s wrong. This is because the letter “i” as a suffix to indicate a plural noun only applies to words with Latin roots. An example of this is Cactus, or “cacti” for more than one cactus. However, the word octopus has a Greek origin. This means actually, that the proper pluralization in this case would be “Octopodes”.

However, have you heard anyone using that? So, this particular word happens to employ a classic English way of pluralizing, and affixing a simple “es” at the end of octopus. Okay, wipe the sweat off your brow on that one. And Go Team Octopuses.

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An Ocean of Two Tails

Do you know what one of the most fun things about July in our area is? It’s the start of Humpback whale season. We are lucky enough to have 2 seasons a year here in this part of Costa Rica, with a small season earlier in the year and now starting this month, a second season running until the end of October.

Each group arrives in Costa Rica at the beginning of their respective winter and stays until spring comes to their home.

Photo: John Williamson

When winter comes to the south, June time, the Antarctic whales, who have built their blubber reserves in preparation for the longest migration in the animal kingdom, head north along the coasts of Chile and Ecuador to the tropical waters of Central America. And that’s why western spotting them in July.

The main theories about why humpbacks migrate to the tropics, are that the warmth allows the calves to grow more quickly, or that the waters are safer because of lower numbers of predators like orcas.

Whatever the motivation for wintering in the tropics it means, you can watch Humpback whales in Costa Rica nearly year-round because of the two seasons.

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Kid’s Camp – Fun in the Ocean

Here at the dive shop we are always about inspiring new people to come exploring the ocean with us. One of our primary goals with the new administration is to build our involvement in the local community as part of this. One of the most exciting projects that we started over Xmas and then again, this past Semana Santa was running some kid’s conservation camps to get younger members of our community involved and learning all about the ocean.

Did you know that children can get the PADI junior open water certification card as young as 10 years old? Participants need to be comfortable in the water and a good basic swimmer but they can start exploring the local ocean and reef from that age.

But, did you know as well, that they can start scuba diving, in a pool environment as young as 8?! The program is called the PADI seal team, and whilst you cannot see real fish in the pool, you can certainly have an adventure there.

Taking these programs as our first camp basis we created two different types of conservation camps. Each including an element of conservation and whilst introducing the children to the importance of their local environment, we are hoping to inspire all of the kids into becoming ECO warriors.

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All About Nudibranchs

Whilst we may not boast the giants of the Galapagos or Isla del Coco, those of us that dive and snorkel the waters around Manuel Antonio know there is still plenty to see. Sometimes you just have to get down and dirty. For that reason, this month, we are going to have a look at some of our lesser known, but still incredibly beautiful residents, the nudibranchs.

What is a nudibranch I hear you say?

It is a type of slug but not your garden variety, eat your vegetables garden slug. These guys are amazing and we are going to tell you about why they are amazing and an important part of our marine ecosystem.

Nudibranchs live in the ocean all around the planet. Mostly on coral reefs and in seagrass but some do float around in the wide ocean. For a quick bit of biology, they have exposed gills, head tentacles, rhinophores (tentacles that are considered to be organs to smell on the back of their head or neck) and are mainly carnivorous—see you learnt something!

Many of our divers and visitors have never even heard of one, and once you spot them underwater you are enthralled. They vary in size, with the smallest only being about 4mm, and the largest can grow to up to 600mm. Here around the Manuel Antonio National Park, they are on average 100-300mm.

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The 6 Myths of Scuba Diving

It is a beautiful March, and both the sky and the ocean are blue. With an incredible jungle and ocean ecosystem on our doorstep and a love for nature that we all share, we know that you are enjoying it as much as us, at least on land. Which has us thinking out loud, “Where are the scuba divers in our local community?” We are actively trying to recruit divers, not just to “fun dive” around the area but to assist us in our mission to restore the reef and make a difference. So, where are you? We are working on building our coral restoration army and we are still looking for volunteers. I know many of you dive, or have been diving in the past but there are also a lot of people here who have yet to try out this amazing sport. So, to tackle this, and maybe inspire some of you, I thought I would look at some of the most common myths surrounding scuba diving to see if we can persuade some of you to take that leap and get into the water.

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Coral Restoration at Manuel Antonio & Quepos

It’s been a beautiful beginning of the year and we are enjoying the sunshine and exploring the oceans. One of our focuses as scuba divers here in Quepos, is to be ambassadors to the ocean, bringing awareness to our local community about the state of our oceans and what we can do to help. Our flagship project here in Manuel Antonio is our coral restoration project. This is a SINAC permitted and approved project that we have been working on. And since 2019 we have been growing and restoring our local coral reefs in an effort to improve the quality of our local ocean environment.

Did you know coral reefs account for less than 1% of the ocean’s floor, yet supports 25% of the ocean? So coral reefs are extremely important. However, they are also under threat. This comes from a number of things including, rising temperatures, ocean acidification, toxic runoff, invasive species, and unsustainable fishing. These are just some of their major threats. Did you know, that in the past 30 years alone, Costa Rica has lost 70% of its coral reefs!! That’s a crazy amount if you really think about it.

So, what does our coral restoration project do to help this?

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Can you see it? The ocean is turning bluer as we creep further and further into the dry season. As scuba divers, we are monitoring the color of the ocean every day, because to us, it gives a good insight into what our conditions are going to be like and what we might find. We will scuba dive 11 months out of the year, yes, even when it is raining, as you are going to get wet anyway. Even when the visibility is low, there is still plenty of things to see here on our local coral reef in Manuel Antonio. Some of our favorite residents are octopus and nudibranchs which are amazingly beautiful, colored sea slugs. No matter what the conditions are doing, we will find them, sometimes you just need to get down and dirty. Every creature on our reef no matter how big or small is important, and everything has its role to play. They all ensure that the reef continues to thrive.

As part of our work at Marine Conservation Costa Rica we conduct surveys on many of the local reef inhabitants and want to monitor any changes in numbers or activity. This can be very tricky and time consuming so we work with volunteers and intern scuba divers to try and get as much information as we can. Any change that we see, could indicate something happening to the ocean locally that is affecting the reef. This holiday season, we will be running out first ever Marine conservation camps. These will be for both scuba divers and non-scuba divers, where we will be training our next generation of underwater ambassadors in survey techniques and reef life. They will then be able to come out and dive with us in the future, gathering all of this essential information and data. Plus, by being seeing everything first hand underwater, they can really understand the impacts we have on the ocean.

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Oceans Unlimited Dive center has been a staple in the Manuel Antonio community for almost 17 years. As the new season begins, we are excited to share the news of a change of ownership at the center. Captain Robert McDaniel is stepping down and retiring after many years of great leadership and passing the reins to his right hand, and Director of Training Georgia King.

This is exciting news for us as we move forward into a new era of scuba diving and marine conservation in the Manuel Antonio /Quepos area. With Georgia’s close ties with the non-profit Marine Conservation Costa Rica, the partnership and work that both do, in the local area will only grow stronger.

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