Manta Night Dives, Kona, Hawaii

We did this amazing dive twice with April from Big Island Divers, at Manta Heaven (aka Garden Eel Cove). Plankton is attracted to big lights shining from the sea floor, and divers gather around the "fire pit" with their own torches to attract plankton as well.
The first day (the first half of the video, December 22, 2011) we had 6 mantas gliding around above us, making it an unreal experience in itself! It started with just one feeding, then more joined her as the dive went on. It was especially nice when other divers made their way back to their boats, since it became more intimate with a lot less bubbles. We were pretty much the last boat to leave the area and the mantas were teeming at the surface surrounding our boat!

Our second dive was the next day (December 23), just before our Black Water Dive, and we were treated to 16 mantas circling above us! This dive was manta mayhem, and we had particularly good seats as well! I somehow scootched really close to the fire pit while finding a seat among the rocks. What an amazing experience :)

All the mantas have names and are identified by the markings on their bellies. Manta sightings are tracked at this and another dive site each night, and you can see these statistics here:
http://www.mantarayshawaii.com/statistics.html
with names and "faces" here:
http://www.mantarayshawaii.com/library.html

Two of the easier to identify mantas in this video are Koie (missing her left cephalic fin) and Lefty (with her left cephalic fin being paralyzed and therefore floppy). We were really excited to see Teresa Ray, who is with baby and a few months away from giving birth. She has a baby bump and a 16 ft wingspan!

Song is "The Only Moment We Were Alone", Explosions in the Sky

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Night
• Diving
• Hawaii
• Manta
• Kona