Cocos Island

For the Australian islands, see Cocos (Keeling) Islands. For the island off the southern tip of Guam, see Cocos Island (Guam).

Cocos Island National Park

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Natural: ix, x
Reference	820
Inscription	1997 (21st Session)
Extensions	2002

Orthographic projection centred over Cocos Island

Cocos Island (Spanish: Isla del Coco) is an island located off the shore of Costa Rica. It constitutes district 11 [1] (one of 13 districts) of Puntarenas Canton of Puntarenas Province [2]. It should not be confused with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. It is one of the National Parks of Costa Rica. It is located in the Pacific Ocean, 550 km (330 mi.) from the Pacific shore of Costa Rica, at 05°31′08″N 087°04′18″W. Its area is 23,85 km² (16 mi²), about 8x3 km (5x1.8 mi), more or less in a rectangular shape. Wafer Station (Estación Wafer) is located at Wafer Bay (Bahía Wafer) on the north coast. Its perimeter is about 21 km (12½ mi). Surrounded by deep waters with counter-currents, it is admired by scuba divers for its populations of Hammerhead sharks, rays and dolphins. Cocos Island is located on almost the exact opposite side of the globe as the Cocos (Keeling) Islands south of Sumatra.

Geology

The island and the surrounding rocks are volcanic in origin. They are the only emergent islands of the Cocos Plate, one of the minor tectonic plates. The Island formed approximately 2 million years ago. The island is composed primarily of basalt, which is formed by cooling lava. The island is mountainous and irregular. Cerro Iglesias, the summit, is 671 m high and rises in the southwestern part of the island. Several short rivers and streams drain the island, the largest of which are the Genio and the Pittier, which empty into Wafer Bay.

The Island's soils are classified as entisols which are highly acidic and easily eroded by the Islands' high rainfall and steep slopes.

Climate

The climate of the island is humid and tropical, with an average annual temperature of 23.6 ºC. The average annual rainfall is over 6,000 mm. Rainfall is high throughout the year, although lower from January through March and slightly lower during late September and October.

Ecology

The island is home to tropical moist forests, including cloud forests at higher elevations. The islands were never linked to a continent, so the flora and fauna arrived via long distance dispersal from the Americas. The islands have a high degree of endemism.

Flora

The island has 235 known species of flowering plants, of which 70, or nearly 30%, are endemic. 74 species of ferns and fern allies (lycopodiophytes and pteridophytes), and 128 species of mosses and liverworts (bryophytes), and 85 species of fungi are found on the island.

The Island has three main plant communities. The coastal forests extend from the seacoast up to 50 meters elevation. Purple Coral Tree (Erythrina fusca), Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), and Pond-apple (Annona glabra) are the predominant trees, with an understory of ferns, shrubs of the Rubiaceae and Solanaceae families, sedges and grasses, and herbaceous plants of the Leguminosae and Malvaceae families.

The inland forests start extend from 50 to 500 meters elevation. "Palo de hierro" (Sacoglottis holdridgei), avocado (Ocotea ira) and the endemic Cecropia pittieri are the most common canopy trees. The trees are festooned at all levels with epiphytic plants, including as orchids, ferns, bromeliads and mosses. The understory includes sedges such as Hypolitrum amplum and various species of tree ferns including Cyathea armata. The endemic palm Rooseveltia frankliniana is also common.

Cloud forests are found at the highest elevations, over 500 meters. Melastoma spp. is predominant.

Fauna

The island has a relatively small number of animal species, with a high level of endemism. The island has 363 known species of insects, of which 65 (18%) are endemic. The greatest diversity is found among the Lepidoptera and Formicidae. The island also has spiders, centipedes, millipedes, and isopods, including the endemic spider Wendilgarda galapagensis.

The island has no amphibians. Two species of reptile are found on the island, the anolis lizard (Norops townsendii) and a gecko (Sphaerodactylus pacificus); both are endemic.

The island and neighboring rocks are home to large nesting colonies of migratory seabirds, including the Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster), Red-footed Booby (Sula sula), Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor), White Tern (Gygis alba) and Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus). Seven species of land birds inhabit the island, including three endemics: the Cocos Cuckoo (Coccyzus ferrugineus), Cocos Flycatcher (Nesotriccus ridgwayi) and Cocos Finch (Pinaroloxias inornata).

The island has five mammal species, including the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa). All the mammals were introduced by humans.

History

Discovery of the island and early cartography

Cocos Island

J. Lines (Diario de Costa Rica, May 12, 1940) cites Fernández de Oviedo who claims that the first discoverer of the island was Johan Cabeças. Other sources claim that Joan Cabezas de Grado was not a Portuguese sailor but an Asturian. D. Lievre, Una isla desierta en el Pacífico; la isla del Coco in Los viajes de Cockburn y Lievre por Costa Rica (1962: 134) tells that the first document with the name "Isle de Coques" is a map painted on pergamen, called that of Enrique II that appeared in 1542 during the reign of Francisco I. The planisphere of Nicolás Desliens (1556, Dieppe) places this Ysle de Coques about one and half degrees north of the Equator. (See also Mario A. Boza and Rolando Mendoza, Los parques nacionales de Costa Rica, Madrid, 1981.) Blaeu's Grand Atlas, originally published in 1662, has a colour world map on the back of its front cover which shows I. de Cocos right on the Equator. Frederik De Witt's Atlas, 1680 shows it similarly. The Hondius Broadside map of 1590 shows I. de Cocos at the latitude of 2 degrees and 30 minutes northern latitude, while in 1596 Theodore de Bry shows the Galapagos Islands near six degrees north of the Equator. E. Bowen, A Complete system of Geography, Volume II (London, 1747: 586) tells that the Galapagos stretch 5 degrees north of the Equator.

Administrative history

The island officially became part of Costa Rica by the promulgation of the Constitution of Costa Rica on November 7, 1949. On May 12, 1970 the insular territory of Cocos Island was incorporated administratively into Central Canton of the Province of Puntarenas by means of Executive Decree No. 27, making it the Eleventh District of Central Canton.

Current status

The island was declared a National Park by means of Executive Decree in 1978. [3]. Cocos Island National Park was added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1997. In 2002, the World Heritage Site designation was extended to include an expanded marine zone of 1,997 km².

The only persons allowed to live on the island are Costa Rican Park Rangers who have established two encampments, including at English Bay. Tourists are allowed ashore only with permission of island rangers, and are not permitted to camp or sleep on the island.

The islands' 33 residents, the Costa Rican park rangers, were allowed to vote for the first time in Costa Rica's February 5, 2006 election.

Cocos Island in fiction

The book Desert Island (Robinson Crusoe Enterprises, North Vancouver, 1996) proposed the highly detailed theory that Daniel Defoe used the Isla del Coco as an accurate model for his descriptions of the island inhabited by the marooned Robinson Crusoe. However Defoe placed Crusoe's island not in the Pacific, but rather off the coast of Venezuela in the Atlantic Ocean. (see discussion page for further details)

Robinson's neighbouring Terra Firma is shown on the colour map of Joannes Janson (Amsterdam) depicting the northeastern corner of South America, entitled Terra Firma et Novum Regnum Granatense et Popayan. It belongs to the early group of plates printed by William Blaeu from 1630 onwards. The properly called Terra Firma was the Isthmus of Darien (Bowen, 1747: 593, and Charles Theodore Middleton, A new and Complete System of Geography, Volume II (London, printed for J. Cooke, 1777-1778, page 448). Crusoe's two references to Mexico are against a South American island as well.

The Michael Crichton novel Jurassic Park centers on the fictitious Isla Nublar that is off of the west coast of Costa Rica. Isla del Cocos 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.

Reference

• "Cocos Island moist forests". WWF scientific report. Accessed October 7, 2007. [4]

External links

• Cocos Island moist forests (WWF)
• Cocos Island moist forests (National Geographic)
• Friends of Cocos Island Foundation
• Other Cocos island information
• "Island of the Sharks" - NOVA Online | Adventure to Cocos Island
• "Shark Mountain" - Nature | Shark Island
• "Fishes of Cocos Island" - Quicktime movie by the USGS
• Videos of Isla del Coco
• "The Buried Treasure of Cocos Island"
• A story detailing buried treasure legends on the island, written by a student
• the real treasure island