Manta Ray Day (night)

Our guests, Kenny and Ruth, wanted to swim with the Manta Rays. Looking through the things to do on the Big Island, this is what sounded the most interesting. I immediately volunteered to be the event photographer and Cindy signed up for her wet suit.

The way Manta watching works is interesting. They shine these bright lights in the water and the light attracts the Manta food source - very small ocean creatures. While the Manta is large and it has a very large mouth, the point of the large mouth is to suck in a large amount of water which hopefully contains some of these very small sea creatures, Over time, the manta have become conditioned (thought I would through in a little behavioral psychology) to the lights and approach just like the rat in a Skinner box. The process has a better probability of success than a whale watch, but there are still no guarantees.

Now for the watchers. As a watcher, you are not free swimming waiting for the mantas to show up. The watchers hold onto the structure holding the lights and you place one of those foam floaties under your feet to keep your feet from dangling. I guess it would be easy to scrape your toes on the manta and give them some deadly human foot fungus.

Pretty cool picture. This is why I was selected as the photographer. I also refused to go into the water in the open ocean so I had to have something to do while sitting on the boat in the dark.

The wet suit is necesary because, Hawaii or not, the ocean temperature is lower than the temperature of the body and the water sucks heat out of you. You are doing very little moving so you generate little heat. You are good for about 45 minutes in the water a trip. I suppose you could warm up, but this takes some time. You have about 45 minutes of the trip to see a manta ray.

The first image of the floaters may have given you the wrong impression of the floaters. As the night goes on, the manta boats watch each other and move to where the action is. Only one small manta showed during the first half hour and things were looking bleak. Near the end, more manta were spotted and this collection of human viewers formed. They ended watching a great show with large manta rays doing barrel rolls within touching distance beneath them. Cindy had her camera and took these pictures.