Book 'em Danno: Klepto Manta Mugs Cameraman

What began as another exhilarating manta ray night dive off Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on an August evening in 2010, quickly turned into the theft of the century. Cameraman Travis Matteson was capturing footage for the scuba diving travel television show "Into the Drink" aboard the Kona Aggressor II. Suddenly, one of the manta's giant wings hooked his light system, and darted off with the nearly $10,000 worth of photo gear. Underwater videographer Johnny Reidt caught the entire theft on camera, and the manta, carrying the stolen photo rig, captured some amazing footage of the nighttime reef. Remarkably, the camera rig was found completely intact after an eight-minute run by the manta, just yards from the dive boat. Case closed.

Into the Drink: http://www.intothedrink.tv

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• scuba
• dive
• diver
• divers
• diving
• manta
• manta ray
• mantaray
• night dive
• Kona
• Kailua-Kona
• Big Island
• Hawaii
• Kona Aggressor
• Aggressor Fleet
• live-aboard
• liveaboard
• Pacific Ocean
• Manta birostris
• Manta alfredi
• elasmobranchii
• elasmobranch
• KOA
• shark
• sharks
• stingray
• devil ray
• devilfish
• skate
• skates
• Mobulidae
• camera
• cameraman
• Into the Drink
• LiquidAssets.tv
• television show
• episode
• theft
• steal
• steals
• mark santa-maria
• johnny reidt
• nick lucey
• randy harris
• travis matteson

[DefenderOfEnglish]

Isn't it amazing. You post something on YouTube, and only about half the comments, like this one, say "Wow, that's really neat."

The other half either say how what's being done is wrong or how it's animal abuse. Yes, it's so sad that this horrible cameraman was there, disrupting the natural processes of an animal most of us wouldn't even know existed if not for cameramen showing us. We get that you people love nature and all, but try taking the pine cone out of your ass.

[Prence]

The Manta said "No Paparazzi!".

[fyconsulting1]

Wow!!!Thanks, Good Job!!!

[Hackzoid]

This is like a message from nature for humans: FUCK OFF , and you know what? the nature's right , and I'm no greenpeace freak but common give them some slack.

[shadowcheto85]

Guess the mantas like their privacy :)



[spamstoper3]

Brilliant video

5*****

[EmileSzafranski]

wow..amazing..awesome..just watched this in webmovietube

[thequirkytraveller]

Had not idea how big rays could be and this film clip shows their graceful majesty close up. Great filming too :-)

[divinagoettel22]

i want to see this movie!! going to check out in webmovietube

[SuperEasytiger]

yea i like this vid n u can also get cool diving stories on the myscuba story site. You can post your own too i think. Type myscubastory into google and click on the first one