Newsgroups: bit.listserv.scuba-l
Date:         Wed, 29 Jul 1992 00:53:00 EDT
From:         Large Nassau Grouper Reef Fish <RFLNG@CLEMSON.BITNET>
Subject:      Cocos Island on the Okeanos Aggressor (LONG)

Diving Isla del Coco, the world's largest uninhabited island about 300
miles off the coast of Costa Rica, is an exotic trip by anyone's standards.
It's my first Cocos trip, having read many glowing reports by other divers
about the legendary large pelagics there.  I decided to record my
contemporaneous impressions of the trip on the Okeanos Aggressor (July 18
- 28), partly because I'll have plenty of time on hand to do it on my
notebook computer on the 10 days at sea, and partly because I want to
record my impressions as they occur.  Thus, this piece is as much an
appendix for my own logbook (in which space is not a premium) as a report
to share on SCUBA-L (where brevity or summary would be preferred).  Not
having the time/energy to rewrite a separate report for the latter, I
appeal to your liberal use of the 'delete' key and editorial excision.

DAY (-2).  Background Info and Anticipation.

"Coco" or "Cocos"?  I had previously called it one or the other, not sure
of which.  Both appear acceptable.  The Okeanos Aggressor calls it Coco,
presumably from the Costa Rican name of Isla del Coco.  In atlases, it
appears as Cocos, though Encyclopedias always give "Cocos" as islands on
the Indian Ocean, not mentioning the one on the Pacific where I'm going.

The Okeanos Aggressor.  One of the liveaboards of the Aggressor Fleet.  It
offers 11-day dive-trips to Cocos from San Jose (Costa Rica), with 7 days
of diving.  One-way passage from San Jose to Cocos takes between 32 to 36
hours.  The price of the Aggressor trip is $2,495 (excluding airfares to
San Jose, hotel or transfer in San Jose for arrival the day before, or
transportation to the Aggressor office to begin the trip).  The vessel is
equipped to accommodate up to 22 divers.  For our week, only NINE signed
up (3 from Japan, 2 from NC, and one each from ID, MD, SC, and VA.)
That's GOOD news for the divers, normally -- plenty of extra space (for
rooms, staging area, and dinghy rides to dive sites).  On the other hand,
it may be a BAD sign that El Nin~o may have driven both sharks and divers
away.   We'll see.

El Nin~o.  A warm current in the Pacific that is unpredictable, but recurs
every decade or so.  Sharks prefer cold to warm.  I've already read reports
about the unusual scarcity of hammerheads and other sharks in Coco this
year, attributing the phenomenon to El Nin~o driving them deeper (not too
bad -- I can dive deeper to find them :-) ) or away (THAT would be bad news
indeed.)  All reports considered, I've already lowered my expectation of
schooling hammerheads and other shark-sightings considerably for this trip.

Day (-1).  7/17/92.  Travel for the Coco trip has begun.

Itinerary:  American Airlines ATL-MIA (11:12A - 12:50P), MIA-San Jose, CR
(2:05P - 3:07P).  The flight connection was relatively smooth this time.
Checked into the Gran Hotel about 4:30pm; took a quick but much needed
shower and headed out to walk around a few blocks.  The rooms had NO air
condition units|  Fortunately, the altitude of San Jose is over 3000',
making the evening temperature tolerable with a little draft from the
outside.  CRUMMY room for the price of $80.  Reminded me of the Grosvenor
Marriott in London in the mid 1980s.  But the House Rules for black jack
at the hotel are VERY favorable to the Player.  :-)

DAY 1.  7/18/92.  The Okeanos Aggressor trip begins.

Had a nice buffet breakfast for 970 colones (hotel exchanged 131 colones
for each $1.)   The passengers were to meet at the Okeanos Aggressor's
office in San Jose by 1pm.  Our trip finally began at 1:40 for Puntarenas
by a chartered bus, and arrived the dock about 4.  We were off shortly
before 5pm while the tide is high, because the Aggressor is a heavy vessel
which draws 15 ft., deeper than some portions of the narrow and shallow
bay at low tide.  It took 4 1/2 hours before we reached open sea, and the
passage to Coco was expected to be 38 hours this time.

DAY 2.  7/19/92.  The CROSSING.

Although we were only making a 260-mile crossing on the Pacific, the bow
of the boat was pitching in excess of 10 ft. in what appeared to be 5 to 6
ft. swells.  SCOP patches notwithstanding, only 4 of the 10 passengers ate
lunch today.  The crossing was rough even though the weather was
relatively calm.  I was one of those who passed up lunch and dinner in
favor of some attempted sleep so that the body wouldn't be tempted to
eject (or bush, if you prefer) anything from the stomach. :-)  DM Jay's
blue-and-gold McCaw, which has been adopted as the boat's mascot, and has
made the crossing numerous times, was sick as a dog (if you pardon the
expression for a parrot), and slumped on its perch the entire day.  It
didn't have a SCOP patch on.  :-)

Q.  What can we expect to see?  Has El Nin~o driven the sharks away?
A.  On the previous trip, it rained everyday.  As a result of the cold
    water, many more sharks were at shallow than usual.  They saw
    12-ft Manta rays, schools of hammerheads, and white tips were
    everywhere - and they had the video taken last week to prove it.

That sounds promising.  ...  Of course, there's no guarantee that THIS
group will see any of those.

A quick perusal of comments in the Okeanos Guest Book revealed that diving
has indeed been good, and hammerheads and other sharks have been
plentiful.  A guest wrote on 7/14, "Unbelievable -- even without my
luggage (hope they enjoyed it in Nicaragua) it had to have been the most
incredible diving I have ever done.  Thanks to all the crew, the sharks,
and to Jay for a fabulous week."  Now THAT's the spirit of a hardcore
diver|  Lost his luggage for 11 days and had the best time of his life.

THE PASSENGERS.  The most experienced one on board must be the Japanese
publisher/photographer, Akira Tateishi, who doesn't speak a word of
English.  He apparently is as famous in Japan as several Roesslers or
Churches put together.  He brought along a book of fantastic photographs
based on his 30 years of marine life photography at the best dive sites of
the world.  He is accompanied by a staff member of Marine Diving, a
monthly mag written in Japanese.  The Jul. 1992 issue has 362 pages
(mostly ads, but some great underwater shots) and sells for 870 yens
(about $6).  The staff member speaks no English either.  They brought
along an employee, a writer for the mag, who DOES speak English, and
speaks or interprets for all three of them.  A Frenchman made the trip
after the Aggressor distributed the list of divers a week ago.  He has
dived extensively throughout the Red Sea, the Caribbean, and the
Indo-Pacific oceans.  There's an instructor who says he has certified over
3000 students.  Among the rest of us, the least experienced had over 100
dives and prior liveaboard experience.  So, all passengers have gotten
their feet wet before.

DAY 3.  7/20/92.  DIVE|  FINALLY.

Dives are scheduled at 8am., 11am., and 3pm.  The Aggressor vessel is
anchored at shallow, and two dinghies (or tenders) take divers for a 5-to-
10-minute ride to dive sites.  The very first dive of the day had all
the elements of Cocos diving -- strong currents, deep dive, and plenty of
sharks.  On descent to 130' with DM Jay we saw at close range a school of
15 hammerheads, ranging from 6' to 10'.  A strong current was pushing the
group away from the small island around which we were supposed to swim
AGAINST even stronger currents to exit from the other side of the island.
As far as I could tell, Jay and I and DM Hugo were the only ones able to
stick to the dive plan.  The others were blown away into all directions
and picked up by two roving dinghies.  I left my camera on board on this
dive to test out the waters first.  It turned out to be a good move.  None
of the photo-pros who took their cameras was able to get any good picture
because the current was too strong for them to maneuver for the desirable
shots.  I had to grab the rock/coral wall a number of times to stop an
uncontrollable drift.  On the grab-release-against-the-current swim, I saw
at least a dozen white tips, from full-grown adults to a 3-ft long baby.
The site is a small island, the Manuelita.  The portion where the current
was the swiftest was the Manuelita Zing.  It was one of the most strenuous
and exciting dives I've ever done.  Computers logged 136' max., 29 min.
BT.  Jay could have led a less strenuous route, you say, given the current
conditions.  Perhaps.  But Jay says the currents are unpredictable, and
they can even flow different directions at different depths.  On every
dive, we just have to take what we get|  We should be getting some easier
dives after this|

Sure enough, the 2nd dive, at Punta Ulloa, was much less arduous.  On this
dive, it was all white tips, it seemed. White tips of all sizes, in
singles, doubles, and multiples were everywhere.  I lost count after the
first 40 or so, and soon it became ho-hum to see just another 8' white-tip
shark|  ALREADY ??  On the 2nd dive of Day 1 ??? Yup.  There were many
colorful Pacific fishes that I've not yet learned to identify.  Several
large marble rays (about 6' diameter), green morays, and one bright-red
frog fish were among the pelagic highlights of this dive.

The Undersea Hunter, another liveaboard that takes trips to Cocos regularly,
was anchored at a short distance from the Aggressor, finishing its week of
diving.  Several of us went over on a dinghy to take a look at what it's
like.  It's a smaller vessel than the Aggressor, but looks more plush
inside and out.  It has a capacity for 16 divers, and trips on it are
booked through Sea and Sea.

We returned to the first site, Manuelita, for the 3rd dive.  This time,
the current slowed down considerably, and the highlight was several 12-15'
Manta rays.  One did a barrel roll a few feet from my face.  DM Jay rode
one such manta briefly, by holding onto the tails of its remoras.  There
were scattered hammerheads, not schooling this time.  But white tips were
EVERYWHERE.  Estimates of the number of white tips from various divers
ranged from 50 to 100.  I saw well over 100 over the span of the dive.
Unbelievable|  In three dives, I have already seen many more sharks than I
had expected to see during the entire week.  The theory of El Nin~o
driving sharks away from Cocos has definitely been disproved.  As it was, I
was already swimming close to hammerheads and white tips every minute of
this dive.  If there're more of them, we would be bumping fins.  Oh, there
were at least half a dozen marble rays, and huge schools of gigantic
Pacific jacks ... but these normally exciting sights were overshadowed by
the sharks and Mantas.  What can we see to top these the next 6 days?  I
dunno, but I'm game for more surprises, like a whale shark, perhaps?  :-)

At dinner time, 5 wanted to do the night dive -- but then a heavy rain
storm came at about the time we were to board the dinghies, and since the
same night dive will be available every night, all decided to wait for
a better night to mingle with the sharks.  We were all sharked out.

BUDDY SYSTEM.  Most of the passengers came with buddies, so I buddied with
Pierre, the Frenchman.  I soon learned that buddying took on a new
meaning.  Each one is on his own, chasing sharks or whatever to get the
best view/photo, so the group is best described as SOBs (Same Ocean
Buddies) instead of the usual buddy-teams.  Paired buddies try to find
each other during the lull of action and on ascent.  In the unlikely event
of help needed from a buddy, one can always find the nearest SOB, I
suppose.  I'm comfortable with this unofficial/unconventional, yet
seemingly operational "system,"  assuming each diver is prepared to take
care of himself, and treat his buddy as primary "back-up", and all other
SOBs as secondary backups.

DAY 4.  7/21/92.  Hammerheads, White tips, Marble rays.

Dirty Rock is a tiny rock island that bottoms at 180', with Little Dirty
next to it, with pinnacle at 70' underwater.  We did the first and third
dives today at Dirty Rock, which may turn out to be the best site in
Cocos.  On both dives, we descended to waiting white tips and hammerheads.
Then the marble rays (usually 4-6 ft. across), in the section of the reef
between Dirty and Little Dirty -- in number alone, make Stingray City in
the Caymans look pale.  I called it Marble Ray City in my logbook.  Then
there're other interesting small stuff too.  I saw several Pacific
boxfish, several colored puffers including the golden puffer and the
white-spotted guineafowl puffer; an unusual, large sponge-rope type
starfish (Model Red), and many colorful Pacific reef fishes -- still
haven't had time to learn to name them. :-(   The 2nd dive was at Viking
Rock.  White tips, hammerheads, marble rays.  Big Yawn --->  :-(  ) .

NIGHT DIVE.  Apparently the only suitable site for a night dive at the
island is one section of the Manuelita rock.  It was a boring dive unless
you're a big fan of sea urchins -- they covered the sea bed.  We saw a
few lobsters and several baby white tips -- that was about it.

DAY 5.  7/22/92.  Sharks.  More Sharks.  Sleeping Sharks.

The Aggressor ventured to the south side of the island for the first time
since our arrival.  The south side is exposed to the wind from the open
ocean and is much rougher than the sheltered side.  The first dive was at
Submerged Rock, which is a large rock that rose up from 80' below to a 20'
pinnacle underwater.  It was the supposed site for seeing whale sharks.
Unfortunately, there wasn't a whale shark this morning, and we settled for
assorted sharks, some Pacific reef fish, and a stonefish.  The Submerged
Rock has a beautiful underwater arch, reminiscent of Bonnie's Arch in
Grand Cayman, but much more massive and spectacular -- teeming with fish
swimming against the strong current through the arch.

Returned to Manuelita for the second dive.  The current was much calmer
than the first day.  We were greeted on descent by a small group of LARGE
hammerheads;  then white tips everywhere, same as previous dives there.
They were even seen sleeping in groups of 6 or more.  Single hammerheads
and assorted marble rays broke up the monotony of white tips, and more
white tips.  The hammerheads are shy.  You see them, they see you, and
they're gone.  It's difficult to get a close-up shot of within 10 ft.  The
white tips, on the other hand, are so abundant here that some had to swim,
I suppose, because most of the ledges and flat spots were occupied by
sleeping white tips, often in groups of 5 or 6, sometimes as many as 10,
in one lying-room-only spot.

Not too long ago there was the myth about sharks never sleep, until some
fisherman at Isla Muheres (off Cancun) found sleeping sharks in some
caves that now made Isla Muheres famous.  If only divers had been in
Cocos then, the myth would have been dispelled years ago.  White tips were
sleeping everywhere, not only in hidden caves, but in any flat spots
along the rock walls.  Although they don't exactly pose for your camera,
you can take just about any shot you wish to within any close proximity
of the sleeping ones ... if you breathe very softly when you're inches
away from them and not startle them.

Dive 3 was on the south-west to west walls of Manuelita.  The original
plan was to go counterclockwise around the island.  Jay saw the current
at the intended entry point, changed the plan the last minute to a
different entry point to go clockwise around the island.  It started
well with small schools of large hammerheads and the usual white tips.
Then we hit some nasty thermoclines (65 to 70F; surface and elsewhere
80 to 82F) and the current picked up as Jay continued to swim against
it.  Pierre and I followed and stayed with him until Pierre signalled
that he was ready to surface.  I was getting tired myself, so I did the
safety stop with him, and we had already lost all but one of the other
SOBs who trailed behind and presumably ran out of air.  Yup.  The other
divers were quietly cursing Jay's unnecessarily fast and long swims
AGAINST a moderately strong current.  We saw most of the good stuff at
the beginning of the dive and not much during the strenuous swim.

Given yesterday's night dive experience and the strenuous 3rd dive, nobody
even THOUGHT of doing a night dive today -- perhaps not even the rest of
the week.  I now understood that night dives are not the THING in Cocos.
One cannot dive the deeper sites where the big sharks are feeding at
night, and we've already done the ONLY night dive site|

DAY 6.  7/23/92.  Deja Vu.  Plus BIG Hammerheads at deep.  Galapagos.

We did the same three dives as DAY 4, in the same order -- Dirty
Rock, Viking Rock, Dirty Rock.   Again, hammerheads, white tips, marble
rays were plentiful.  This time, I ventured to the deep murky/cold water
below 150' and saw the largest hammerheads yet roving down there.
However they moved away quickly and the camera strobe wasn't strong
enough to get a decent picture.  Not until today have I noticed seeing
any Galapogo sharks.  There were several 10-12 footers in Viking Rock,
amidst other sharks.  The third dive was fast-current, high voltage, and
no one even breathed a word about a night dive.  We were all content to
take our 16-hour surface interval looking for the same or better
tomorrow.  My dives logged 154'/43min., 110'/55min., and 91'/60.

DAY 7.  7/24/92.  Same but more.  Rough Sea.  Strong wind and currents.

By popular demand -- Dirty, Viking, Dirty, in that order again.  The
hammerheads are abundant on these reefs, but they are generally shy and
elusive.  It's difficult to get within a close range to them to get good
close-up photos.  I think most people in the group are still looking for
good shots.

The first dive was uneventful by Cocos standards.  That means great but
not spectacular -- hammerheads, white tips, marble rays, etc.... we had
seen on every dive (except the night dive).  On the 2nd dive, we were
greeted on descent by the largest school (40 to 50) of the largest
(8 to 12 ft.) hammerheads to date.  The current was viciously swift,
but we all managed to hang on to the rock to get some decent shots.
The school lingered longer and closer than usual, giving us a good looking
over, and vice versa.

On the 3rd dive back to Dirty Rock, the normally calm sea there had grown
to 5-ft swells.  Both dinghies had to be loaded from the same sheltered
side of the Aggressor, and the 10-min. ride to the Rock was BUMPY.  Ah,
but we can look forward to the 16-hr. surface interval after the dive --
we said on the dinghy ... fun was beginning to sound like WORK|  Nothing
much unusual for Dirty Rock.  I saw the first Green turtle of this trip
(others have seen a couple others), about 3 ft., while I was about to take
my safety stop.  Managed to swim close with it for awhile until it went
deeper than I wanted to return.  Two DMs, Jay and Mario, took video most
of the day and they got good shots of the schools of hammerheads, and
divers playing with marble rays and swimming up REALLY close to groups of
napping white tips.

Pierre and I have evolved from SOBs to a traditional buddy team.  We began
to get much better feel of the strong currents -- jointly decide when to
fight them and when to give up and turn around.  We were usually far from
the other SOBs now, but within a few feet of each other, even on the deep
dips.  :-)  Today's dives logged 161/53, 122/60, and 114/52.

DAY 8.  7/25/92.  Winding Down.

Repeated the DAY 1 dives -- Manuelita, Punta Ulloa, Manuelita.  Still many
hammerheads and white tips on each dive -- a school of over 40 on our
descent on the 3rd dive.  EVERYTHING now looked deja vu, except the
unpredictable current.  On the 3rd, the current was at the right direction
for a nice drift dive half way around the island.  A small Manta ray and
two Green turtles are the extras besides the usual sharks.  Also, several
morays, including one large Panamic green moray.  Logged 114/47, 96/60,
and 115/61.

DAY 9.  7/26/92.  Last Dive-Day.

We had to leave Cocos by 1 pm. so that we can enter Puntarenas during high
tide 36 hours later.  We did the last two dives at Dirty Rock.  The first
one was more than we bargained for.  We descended at the same entry point
to hammerheads, then drifted to the turn between Dirty Rock and Little
Dirty.  There we met the strongest current to date.  Pierre and I had to
negotiate around it (else blown into the wide open ocean) to get to calmer
waters on the other side.  The current was nearly strong enough to blow
our masks and regulators off.  We were crawling hand-over-hand on the
cliff, at 90', then 80', then 70' ... each time we thought we had gotten
past the worst and had a breather between rock recesses, we were met by
more of the same.  When we managed to wedge and clamp ourselves for a
temporary stop, we noticed that even the white tips and marble rays were
swimming hard, looking for shelter ... the SAME shelter WE were looking
for.  We finally managed to crawl and kick our way up without getting
blown away horizontally, and surfaced after a brief safety stop,
exhausted.

The final dive was more eventful.  The current had subsided considerably
and we enjoyed the usual large pelagics plus an unexpected spotted eagle
ray gliding effortlessly through a group of marble rays.  Nevertheless,
Ariko and company were swept by currents to the middle of the ocean,
several hundred yards from Dirty Rock by the time they were picked up.
Pierre and I ended this trip on two deep dives:  145/53, and 156/60.

The Aggressor lifted anchor about 12:45 pm.  We were escorted by a school
of 30 to 40 dolphins for about 20 minutes.  They were gliding at the bow
of the boat as well as swimming along side and cutting across the front,
jumping into mid-air occasionally.  We were moving with a strong tail
wind.  About 4 hours after we started, Cocos Island, which looks like a
huge boulder above the ocean floor, finally disappeared into the horizon.

DAY 10.  7/27/92.  Return Crossing.

It rained and drizzled most of the day, but the sea was calm, and everyone
ate all meals today.  I'll be the only one flying back tomorrow.   Others
will stay at San Jose from a few days to a couple of weeks to take on
other non-scuba activities.  Pierre will be heading for more dives in the
Galapagos.

At 4:30 pm, we were greeted by several pilot whales about a hundred yards
away.  At 5:30 pm., a second welcoming party of small dolphins surfed for
a few minutes around the boat.  The sea journey finally ended at 11pm. in
Puntarenas.

DAY 11.  7/28/92.  The Last Leg.

A continental breakfast was served on board the Aggressor at 6 am.  We
were picked up by the chartered bus about 7:15.  I arrived at the San Jose
airport at 9:30, with a 3 hour wait for departure to Miami.

A few SUMMARY COMMENTS:

El Nin~o.  It's history, according to DM Mario.  It brought unusually
warm water (86F) July LAST YEAR, and it did make hammerhead sightings
rare.  However, El Nin~o is gone since May this year|  The surface
temperature is now 80-82F with thermoclines in the low 70s.  Apparently
the time lag between the time an article is written and when it is
published created the erroneous impression about El Nin~o.  For example, I
read an article in a July 1992 issue of a magazine about Cocos that was
apparently describing the conditions there in July 1991, or before.

How would I summarize Cocos diving?

FANTASTIC|  UNEXCELLED in the quantity and variety of LARGE PELAGICS.
It's deep (where the hammerheads and large sharks are, though isolated
ones do wander to shallower depths), demanding (strong and unpredictable
currents; strong surges near the surface around rock pinnacles;  and
sometimes large swells at sea), but incomparable in LARGE pelagics
anywhere in the world.  The Rocks (small islands) are mostly ROCKS, with
steep drop-offs and hard corals.  Forget about soft corals and sponges and
other small macro stuff.  It wasn't until our 6th day of diving that we
wandered into a shallow that resembled a coral reef.  The ONLY thing we
might have expected to see but didn't was the whale shark.  Mario said the
last sighting was 5 weeks ago; and Jay said he had seen a total of 7 over
a couple of years.  They are there.  But to see them, a diver will have to
be at the right place at the right time.  We weren't.

HOW GOOD is Cocos diving compared to other world-class sites?

Ariko, through his interpreter, had previously named the French Polynesia
has having the best dive sites in the WORLD, now says Cocos is THE best.
He has travelled and photographed marine life for 32 years all over the
"best" diving places in the world -- I trust his judgment.  Pierre also
rates Cocos "numero uno" now, compared to other exotic sites he has dived
in the past 30 years.  Though I haven't been to nearly as many world class
sites as Ariko and Pierre, I don't see how diving can be any more exciting
than in Cocos.  I'll second their TOP rating.

A word about deep diving.  The hammerheads like to stay in deep-cold-
murky waters, and we could ALWAYS count on seeing them below 120 ft.
However, most of the pelagics can be seen while diving no deeper than
90', some isolated ones even close to the surface.  Thus, the dive
profiles I recorded are NOT typical of others' diving here.  The
shallowest day-dive I did all week had a max. depth of 91' and 13 of the
20 exceeded 110' -- a few below 150'.  I was here to see the hammerheads;
and they were down there to greet me, on EVERY dive.

Why are the Okeanos Aggressor trips only half-booked?

The recession.  Jay said week after week they get cancellations from
people who forfeited their $800-or-so deposits because they didn't want
to (or couldn't afford) spend the remaining $2000+ to make the trip.

How's the weather in Cocos?

It gets 300" of rain a year.  You can safely leave your sun-tan lotions
at home.  It rained everyday.  The sun came out a few hours during the
entire week.  And that was more sun than was there the previous week|
Air and surface-water temp. ranged between 75-83F this week.

Who should/shouldn't dive there?

Only those who had quite a bit of salt-water diving experience should
even THINK about making a trip there, IMO.  I think a prior experience
of a couple hundred dives may be adequate, to be able to ENJOY the big
stuff after the heavy demands are met.  Several in our group who had
previously logged about 200 dives encountered some problems in managing
the currents and air consumption throughout the week.   For the truly
advanced divers, I recommend Cocos without any reservation|  You've GOT
to see it for yourself|

If you're into diving with sharks and haven't yet been to Cocos, you'll
probably be booking your trip there soon.  If you're afraid of sharks,
a trip there will surely cure you of that phobia -- when you have close
encounters with supposedly "dangerous" sharks on every dive, in 10s to
100+ on a single dive, you soon realize that there's plenty of space in
the ocean for sharks and divers to enjoy each other's presence without
fear.

61 hours after the last dive in Cocos, I'm finally home for a much needed
rest and a LONG surface interval.  :-)

HAPPY SHARK DIVING, y'all.

-- Bob.
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