Dive with sharks, rays, and sea turtles in Panama’s Coiba National Park and help Dr. Rachel Graham’s team collect vital research data.

Off Panama’s Pacific coast, Coiba National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Eastern Tropical Pacific's most biodiverse marine reserves. It is home to hundreds of fish species, dozens of shark species, rays, sea turtles, and large pelagics that travel the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor, which links Coiba with the Galápagos. Decades of protection and low human disturbance have left its reefs and channels remarkably intact.

On guided dives and in-water surveys with Dr. Rachel Graham and the MarAlliance team, you’ll help document this natural wonder firsthand through photo identification, camera trapping, megafauna tagging, and eDNA sampling. Your work builds the baseline data needed to guide long-term protection of one of the Pacific’s last great marine wildernesses.

Immerse yourself in marine science and learn hands-on megafauna monitoring techniques, which may include:

• Species Identification: Learn to identify sharks, rays, sea turtles, and predatory fish by their key features, so you can record what you see on every dive.

• Photo Identification: Photograph whitetip reef sharks, mantas, and turtles. Their unique spots and markings let scientists recognize individual animals and track them over time.

• Environmental DNA (eDNA): Help collect seawater samples. Animals constantly shed skin and mucus, so eDNA reveals which species are present, even when divers don’t see them.

• Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUVs): Help deploy and retrieve baited camera traps that record sharks and other wildlife, then review the footage with the team.

Research activities vary by trip and conditions. Details will be confirmed with participants before departure.

• Wahoo Rock — an exposed pinnacle for experienced divers: variable currents, whitetip reef sharks, big schools of bigeye jacks and barracuda, and seasonal chances at whale sharks and mantas.

• Iglesia — dramatic underwater rock "cathedrals" and swim-throughs, with reef sharks and bull sharks patrolling the base and snapper stacked in the shadows.

• Ranchería & Coibita Gardens — calmer coral gardens for relaxed exploration: damselfish clouds, parrotfish, stingrays in the sand, and visiting turtles.

• Buffet — a "sharky" slope-and-rock site with multiple whitetip reef sharks, dense barracuda, snapper, and grunt schools, mobulas, and patrolling blue trevally.

• Islas Contreras (the far pinnacles): submerged towers and walls drop into blue water, with 20–40 m visibility and strong, nutrient-rich, variable currents that feed a genuinely wild ecosystem. Chances to encounter schooling hammerheads, manta rays and/or mobulas, and large aggregations of jacks, tuna, reef sharks, and turtles. Expect intermediate to advanced conditions with drift diving.

Join us on this unparalleled expedition, where each moment promises discovery, adventure, and a profound connection with the mesmerizing world beneath the waves.

Morning

• MarAlliance will pick up guests at their hotel or at Tocumen International Airport. Flights should arrive before noon.

Afternoon & Evening

• Depart Panama City by road, crossing the isthmus toward the Pacific coast of Veraguas province. The drive takes roughly seven hours with a break, rolling through the interior cattle country and forested hills before dropping down to the surf town of Santa Catalina. Check into Bambuda Santa Catalina, get settled, and enjoy a relaxed evening dinner in town, with plenty of good options along the beach road. If time allows, we will head to the Coiba Dive Center to get you enrolled and kitted out with gear.

Morning

• Breakfast with the group before heading to the dive shop.

• Arrive at 7:30 AM at the dive shop, then enjoy a 1.5-hour boat ride to the national park.

• Likely dive sites include the swim-through at Iglesia.

Afternoon

• Lunch, snacks, and water are served between dives.

• Head back to the hotel and get cleaned up.

Evening

• Meet with the group to discuss the day's dives and to share and upload photos.

• Dinner will include presentations and a discussion of tomorrow's dive and plans.

Morning

• Breakfast with the group before heading to the dive shop.

• Arrive at 7:30 AM at the dive shop, then enjoy a 1.5-hour boat ride to the national park.

• Second day exploring the park's biodiversity. Likely dive sites include Wahoo Rock and the slopes of Buffet for shark monitoring. We will also visit the calmer coral gardens around Ranchería and Coibita. We will be looking for big animals and enjoying unhurried reef time.

Afternoon

• Lunch, snacks, and water are served between dives.

• Head back to the hotel and get cleaned up.

Evening

• Meet with the group to discuss the day's dives and to share and upload photos.

• Dinner will include presentations and a discussion of tomorrow's dive and plans.

Morning

• Breakfast with the group before heading to the dive shop.

• Arrive at 7:30 AM at the dive shop, then enjoy a 2-hour boat ride out to the Contreras Pinnacles.

• The longer run out to the Contreras Pinnacles is the trip's headline day. These remote offshore seamounts and more distant islands sit in nutrient-rich water well outside the park's more sheltered dive sites. See schooling dense walls of jacks, tuna, and barracuda moving through blue water and, if lucky, turtles and possibly large pelagics. Bring your sense of adventure.

Afternoon

• Lunch, snacks, and water are served between dives.

• Head back to the hotel and get cleaned up.

Evening

• Dinner will include presentations and a discussion of tomorrow's plans.

Morning

• A last breakfast at the hotel before checking out and boarding the return transfer to Panama City (≈7 hours)

• Guests will be transported to Tocumen International Airport in Panama City or to a nearby hotel. Guests may want to stay overnight in Panama City and catch an early flight out.