If they're not already on your bucket list, put swimming with these huge, graceful, alien-looking creatures on it now!
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| Just look at this beauty! |
Why should you swim with manta rays? Let me share the first of my many experiences with manta rays with you to explain why. (Just make sure you're responsible and don't touch them or crowd them: These colossal beauties deserve our respect and you could harm them with just a touch)...
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| Manta rays aren't shy! |
“Manta! Manta!” The cry we had been waiting for rang out
from our guide. The group I was with had been dropped off at a sandy-bottomed
dive site known to be a fairly reliable place to see manta rays during the southwest
monsoon and there had been some recent sightings during the days preceding my
visit. We were on the eastern side of the Maldives, where the southwest monsoon season (April to
November) is the best time to spot manta rays. We’d been sailing around on the
traditional wooden ‘dhoni’ (boat) for less than 20 minutes before we got the signal
and a surge of adrenaline instantly rushed through me. I was about to see wild
manta rays for the first time!
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| A manta breaching the surface |
Sure enough, the surface of the water was being breached by
several triangular pectoral fins. The undersides of their fins flashed white as
they sliced through the water and beneath them I could see the silhouettes of
yet more manta rays. We had stumbled upon a group of reef mantas which although
smaller and more common than oceanic mantas are still amongst the largest of
any type of ray in the world, at an average of 3 to 3.5 metres wide.
Gentle Giants
Part of the sharks and rays family; mantas are gentle giants
which feed upon microscopic zooplankton. Sadly they are rated as ‘Vulnerable’
by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which makes
observing them in the wild even more of a privilege. Threats to mantas include
pollution, entanglement in fishing nets and even illegal poaching as their gill
plates are used in Chinese medicine. However all ray species are now protected
in the Maldives.
"Mesmerised by the sight, I remained rooted to the spot as it passed beneath me; unable to take my eyes off it until its shape gradually faded into a blue shadow".
We were there to simply marvel at these majestic creatures, and
the guide dutifully briefed us that they could easily be startled and under no
circumstances may we attempt to chase or touch them as it could cause a great
deal of harm. Nodding in agreement, we slid into the water one by one some
metres away from where the mantas were swimming.
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| Watch out below! Graceful manta gliding by |
I peered through the slightly-murky water to try to catch
sight of the shape of a manta ray and my snorkel almost fell out of my mouth at
the thrill of seeing a manta ray glide just a few metres beneath my fins! Mesmerised
by the sight, I remained rooted to the spot as it passed beneath me; unable to
take my eyes off it until its shape gradually faded into a blue shadow.
The underwater visibility in the Maldives is usually superb
but there was a large amount of plankton in the water which made it more hazy
than usual. The zooplankton was the very reason the mantas had been attracted
to the spot. Although zooplankton makes your skin tingle slightly the
ethereal spectacle of the manta rays made me completely forget the mild
discomfort.
My initial surge of excitement barely had time to ebb when I saw the
guide pointing in another direction. I turned to see two more manta rays
gliding along side by side, funnelling plankton into their strange alien-like mouths
with their cephalic fins. Then a third swooped down along the sandy bottom as the
imposing figure of the largest manta ray swept into vision.
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| Just look at that alien-like face and body - amazing creatures! |
Drinking in the details
As the mantas glided past me I drank in all the details. Their
strange triangular ‘wings’, white underbellies, gaping mouths and ability to
effortlessly accelerate from ‘cruise’ mode to faster than any human could swim.
Their gracefulness and elegance was spellbinding. At this moment I immediately
understood why manta rays are on the bucket lists of so many snorkellers and
divers. I dived down to about five metres with my snorkel in a vain attempt to
share their perspective, wishing that just for a day I could become an aquatic
creature roaming the reefs of the Maldives.
Where to spot them
Where the mantas roam varies according to the season and their
migratory pattern but there are certain sites where they can be often found
including cleaning stations where they go for the removal of parasites. There
are countless ‘cleaning stations’ and favoured feeding grounds for mantas
across the Maldives. One of the most famous sites for spotting manta rays is
Hanifaru Bay in Baa Atoll, a Marine Protected Area and home of the Maldivian
Manta Ray Project (which researches and monitors the manta population).
Visitors can purchase special tickets to visit Hanifaru Bay via their resort or
safari boat. Visitor numbers are monitored and there are regulations in place n
order to protect the Maldives’ precious manta population.
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| They are usually found in groups like these ones here |
Ari Atoll is also another good place for sighting manta rays. But
in most atolls there will be somewhere named ‘Manta Point’ or at least
somewhere which is known as a regular haunt of mantas. Guests on liveaboard
boats (diving cruises) stand an excellent chance of seeing manta rays during
the right season; not just because they maximise their chances by doing three
or four dives per day but also because the lights at the back of the yachts
attract plankton which in turn attracts mantas. It’s certainly not uncommon for
an exciting discovery of manta rays feeding at the back of the boat at night.
- Most resorts in the Maldives offer manta-spotting trips (during manta season)
- Some resorts also offer a manta-alert service, whereby guests put their names on a standby list to receive a call or text message when manta rays have been spotted
- There are thought to be roughly 10,000 manta rays in the Maldives
A combination of factors including the abundance of food, lack of natural predators, lack of big-scale and commercial fishing and the protection of all ray species in the Maldives are just some of the reasons why the population in the Maldives is in somewhat a better state than in other regions where some populations have seen a 95 per cent decline just in the past few decades. But there’s good news for the species on an international scale.
All manta rays and
five species of shark have recently been included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). It’s an international treaty
that forces countries to control the trade of products of listed
species. This means that if a country insists on trading in manta products they
will need a permit and to provide scientific evidence that it will not be
detrimental to the population, which is extremely difficult to do.
Mantas have
a pregnancy lasting nine to 12 months so they can’t reproduce fast enough to
replace those mantas hunted by fisherman or dying trapped in nets. But over
time, it is hoped that the impact of this new international law will be seen in
the oceans around the world...
Now do you see why manta rays are so precious? Heck, I even named Manta Media after them!
