Diving in Contreras islands of Coiba National Park is an experience that is like no other. This group of islands, located in the far north of the Coiba National Park, is a 1:30 to 2:00 boat trip from Santa Catalina. It is worth the long trip, as it is famous for its sharks and rays.

As you descend the Contreras dive site and float along, you can be greeted by large school of snapper, barracuda, bigeye jacks, and long-tail stingrays. They swim around you in perfect unison, creating a moment of awe-inspiring beauty that is hard to describe. You can almost feel the energy and excitement amongst these schools of fish as they play and dance around you. Contreras is also known for its beautiful and colorful fan corals, almost not to find around other dive sites of Coiba National Park.

The highlight of the dive comes when a couple of curious sharks arrive on the scene, sizing you up before darting away with lightning-fast precision. The sharks are majestic creatures, and seeing them up close is an experience that fills your heart with excitement while also instilling respect for their power and prowess. 

We regularly see bull sharks, sometimes oceanic black tips and from April to June / July small schools of hammerhead sharks. From February to May we see also huge schools of pelagic stingrays, flying around like flying carpets.

Contreras is the part of the Coiba National Park in Panama, where you really feel the majesty of the marine life. As you surface, you are left with a sense of wonder that is hard to put into words - an appreciation for the magnificence of nature, and a newfound desire to protect and preserve these incredible underwater ecosystems for generations to come.

 Due to the depth of the dives and the possibility of very strong currents, we only accept divers with Advanced certification or at least proof of a deep dive and a minimum of 25 dives (and dives done within the last 12 months). We recommend to dive Contreras with Nitrox to get more out of these dives to greater depths. If you do not hold a Nitrox certification, we offer you to do the Nitrox course:

· By e-learning for USD 180.00 including certification

· Doing the “Dive Today” Adventure Dive Program for USD 20.00 (introduction and analyzing a Nitrox mixture in a scuba diving tank)

Please read and accept the following:

We need a minimum of 4 divers for this trip. We accept your booking and will promote this trip to other interested and experienced divers. In case we don’t get the required minimum, we give you the choice of going on another “normal” Coiba Dive Trip (to the regular Coiba price), change the date or get a full refund of your deposit. As your safety is our highest priority, we reserve the right to re-route the trip to closer dive sites of Coiba National Park, if weather or sea conditions are too dangerous. In this case we will refund the Contreras fuel add-on of course.