Cocos Marine Conservation Area () is an administrative area which is managed by

SINAC National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC, ) is part of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) of Costa Rica. It is the administrator for the nation's national parks, conservation areas, and other protected natural areas. Created in 199 ...

for the purposes of conservation of

Cocos Island Cocos Island () is a volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean administered by Costa Rica, approximately southwest of the Costa Rican mainland. It constitutes the 11th of the 15 districts of Puntarenas Canton of the Puntarenas Province, Province of ...

, in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

national waters of

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

. This conservation area stretches from the south extreme point of

Nicoya Peninsula The Nicoya Peninsula () is a peninsula on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It is divided into two provinces: Guanacaste Province in the north, and the Puntarenas Province in the south. It is located at . It varies from in width and is about lon ...

towards Cocos Island, geographically as an island territory, it has pronounced topography, it is frequently cloudy and has copious amounts of rain year round. Cocos Island National Park and two marine management areas are within the ACMC. There are 235 plant species, 400 of insects (65 endemic), 5 of reptiles (2 terrestrial endémic), 3 of marine turtles, 100 of birds (13 resident, 3 endemic), 50 arthropods (7 endemic), 57 of crustaceans, 600 of marine molluscs and 250 of fish. Among fish there are whitetip shark,

hammerhead shark The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, named for the unusual and distinctive form of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a Hammerhead shark#Cephalofoil, cephalofoil (a T-shape or " ...

yellowfin tuna The yellowfin tuna (''Thunnus albacares'') is a species of tuna found in pelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. Yellowfin is often marketed as ahi, from the Hawaiian , a name also used there for the closely related bigeye ...

parrotfish Parrotfish (named for their mouths, which resemble a parrot's beak) are a clade of fish placed in the tribe Scarini of the wrasse family (Labridae). Traditionally treated as their own family (Scaridae), genetic studies have found them to be dee ...

manta ray Manta rays are large Batoidea, rays belonging to the genus ''Mobula'' (formerly its own genus ''Manta''). The larger species, ''Giant oceanic manta ray, M. birostris'', reaches in width, while the smaller, ''Reef manta ray, M. alfredi'', reac ...

and jurel.

Protected areas

* Cocos Island National Park * Submarine Mountains Marine Management Area, the waters surrounding the Cocos Island National Park area.

References

{{CostaRica-protected-area-stub Conservation Areas of Costa Rica