1/17/2024 0 Comments Boy feeds giant manta ray![]() Generally the manta diving in the Maldives is around cleaning stations. Maldives Liveaboards are a great way to see the islands and find the best manta ray dive sites. While manta dives are available from some of the Maldives Island resorts, the best way to encounter mantas is from a liveaboard. The behaviour is predictable and so the mantas can be found. ![]() The Maldives’ weather is influenced by monsoons and the mantas migrate from one side of the atolls to the other depending on which direction the wind comes from. These oceanic islands are a mecca for manta spotters as the resident population of manta rays move around the Atolls depending on the season. Perhaps the most popular manta location is the Maldives. Luckily Planet Dive Holidays offers trips to many of them. However, there are a few locations where diving with mantas is common. ![]() In fact, I often use the phrase ‘like watching a manta ray swim passed’ as a way to describe the feeling of something awesome.Īs with most special things in life, swimming with mantas doesn’t happen just everywhere. It’s akin to watching your child ride a bike for the first time or finding a winning lottery ticket. It’s impossible to describe the feeling of watching a massive fish the shape of a stealth bomber coming into vision. Chance’s are you will get close to a manta ray while diving by doing nothing.ĭiving with mantas is one of the most satisfying things a person can do in the water. So to get within touching distance and take your dive from an “oh, we saw a manta” to “OMG that manta was awesome it came right over my head, I could have reached out and touched it,” is simply a case of staying still and watching the manta to see what it does. He was not allowed in the water on any of the manta dives after that. I remember seeing a dive guide grab an errant diver who seemed to want to chase after every manta that arrived at the cleaning station. Not only does it ruin the experience for them, but also for everyone else. I still can’t believe the stupidity of some people who’s first and only instinct is to swim at ray. ![]() It is not to be over zealous, but to let you get close to a manta. There is a very good reason why during their dive brief guides tell divers to remain still and not to approach a manta ray. One thing guaranteed to turn a manta away though is being chased. So if you stay still and calm, the ray will more often than not, come to you. It is thought to keep the manta’s brain warm and creates slightly higher brain function than your average fish and has made mantas more inquisitive. They are curious fish with a complex vein and artery structure in their brains called rete mirabile by men in white coats, but it translates from Latin as ‘wonderful net’. To get close to a manta ray is one of the easiest things to do while diving. The majority of other rays – sting rays for example – are able to rest on the seabed and still breathe. That’s because mantas evolved differently to other rays as their mouths face forwards so they can force water laden with tiny creatures across their gills. A stationery manta is the same as a human with their head in the water. Mantas can only hover for a few seconds because they need water passing across their gills to breathe. The rays like to visit certain places to get a groom from cleaner fish – wrasse and butterflyfish. They are the embodiment of grace a marine ballet dancer that make the Bolshoi company look like a bunch of dads dancing at a wedding to Agadoo.ĭiving with manta rays usually occurs at cleaning stations. Mantas are my favourite animal on the planet. Both, you’ll agree, are impressive creatures. Just to let you know though the reef manta grows to roughly 5 metres from wing tip to wing tip and the oceanic manta grows to about seven metres wing tip to wing tip. Most divers still call them “Bloody hell did you see that manta!” and whether it was a reef or oceanic doesn’t seem to matter. ![]() The giant oceanic manta ray retains the scientific name Manta birostris, but the slightly smaller Manta alfredi or reef manta ray was classified after studies of manta rays across the world. Some guessed condor, others golden eagle, but while these birds are impressive they are never going to beat the correct answer – the manta ray.Īctually that’s not really correct now because scientists have changed the classification of the manta and there are now two, possibly three species, where once there was one. “What has a wingspan of up to seven metres?” That was a question in a pub quiz last week and I’m the only one who got it right. ![]()
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