Our second Manta Ray Education Trip of the Komodo season left Labuan Bajo for the National Park on the 6th of July, with our fingers crossed for sightings of these gentle giants.
Returning guests Sabrina, Stefan, Marcel were joined by Nora, Bas, Sile, Richard, Matthew, Daniel, Salman, Phillip and Ben and staff Aldo, Jo, Vinnty, Ricky, DMT Stefano who were hoping not only to wow them with Komodo’s beauty but also to encounter some marine megafauna in the shape of manta rays.
After a check dive on the first day, the second day concentrated on diving known manta hotspots within the Komodo national park, Karang Makassar and The Cauldron. Prior to the dives guests were given a manta education briefing by Jo which focused on mantas biology, global distribution and reproduction and mating habits. The team entered the water with high hopes weren’t disappointed. We can never guarantee the marine life on these special education trips, but the mantas came and put on a great show for us.
Numerous mantas were seen by all, up to 15 on the first dive at Karang Makassar with 8 mantas dancing around the groups at one time, followed by around 10 on second dive, including 2 rare all black mantas. Ricky and his group even witnessed a manta ray ‘relieving itself’, surely a sign of good luck. The Cauldron did not disappoint either and mantas and eagle rays were spotted by some lucky groups.
In addition to manta rays the diving over the rest of the Komodo Liveaboard was phenomenal whitetips sharks, blacktip sharks and grey reef sharks prowled the reefs at Castle Rock and Crystal Bommie and when dolphins were spotted on the surface at Castle Rock, one lucky group of divers had the pleasure of encountering these creatures on the dive as well. Huge trevally, tuna and turtles accompanied us, a school of 5 mobula (devil rays) also made an appearance and on the night dive spotting of sleeping turtles and the rare Spanish dancer had divers in fits of excitement.
Evenings on the boat were spent watching documentaries about manta rays and their conservation and divers were given information about what they could do to protect mantas from fishing for the gill-raker trade.
One dedicated diver also managed to complete his Advanced Adventurer course during all the excitement on the trip. Congratulations Matt.
Thanks to everyone for joining us on this trip. We hope that the information provided was useful and you will spread the word about the little known plight of the mantas and ask your friends and families to get involved however they can.
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