Success rate of Jacks Diving Locake with Mantas??

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KidK9

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Location
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Hey all, I was wondering if anybody has a ballpark idea of how successful the Manta Ray dives are with Jacks Diving Locker. Thanks a ton.
 
If by "success" you mean how often do they see mantas - it's not up to Jack's, or any other
operator.

Mantas, being wild animals, show up when they want to, not when any particular dive operator
wants them to (and much to the operator's chagrin when they don't).

The mantas show up to eat -- good plankton buildup, good chance of mantas popping in for a
snack.

Manta Pacific Research Foundation publishes an e-mail report about manta sightings. If
you're coming here on vacation and would like to get an idea about how frequently the mantas
are being seen you can sign up at:

Manta Report

In the interests of complete disclosure, my wife is on the board of directors of MPRF.
Me? I'm just an occasional draftee...
 
Yes, I realize that it's not up to the dive operator, LoL. I was just wondering if they get to see the Mantas as often as say, the Bahamas Sharks. I'm well aware that Mantas are wild animals. Thanks for the link.
 
I've been there twice in two separate years in July and August and we had Mantas both times. Unfortunately that's not much of a statistic. I dove with Kona Honu Divers and they didn't seem to concerned about them not being there, at least at that time of the year.

By the way I would recommend Kona Honu over Jack's, it was a bigger boat, less crowded, and you can park practically right next to the boat. I saw a bunch of people at Jack's cramming into a van, for what looked like a ride to the boat.

Kona Honu has a great operation, however make sure you talk to Maggie, Glenn tends to forget things. But he and his crew treat you real well, and I short of an Aggressor I haven't found a better dive boat.

By the way, even my daughter (now 15) was impressed with it. And quite frankly its hard to impress a teenager. Its been called one of the 10 best dives, and so far I haven't found anything that comes close.

One suggestion, take a 3 mm wet suit, you sit still for quite a while and it gets chilly, my wife and daughter both had to bail early because they got cold, and even I was starting to fill it a little.

Bob
 
Spring and summer have been very good this year. I haven't heard about what happened the last week, I know there was at least a day or two recently the mantas didn't show up. From early March up until the last ten days or so there had only been maybe a handful of nights (maybe 5-8) the mantas didn't show up. Only 5 to 8 no-show nights over a 4.5 month period is a pretty darned good rate. I won't say that is typical, it's just been very consistant this last several months.

In general the last few years, spring through early fall have been pretty good with a few days, sometimes a week or two, here and there where the mantas don't show. Late fall through winter it seems to be much less reliable in comparison, but they still show up quite regularly. If you are planning on coming in January or February and the surf happens to be up at the time don't be surprised if you don't see mantas.

There are never any guarantees, at least the dive site is a very nice night dive if there are no mantas (assuming you go with a dive op who turns it into a regular night dive if nothing happens- most do). It's a great site with lots of coral on the dropoff and it's loaded with shrimp, eels and a fair number of slipper lobsters at night.

Steve

A little update (7/27)- just found out there was a 6 day stretch with no mantas this last week.... sometimes it happens.
 
My husband and I dive Kona twice a year. One visit is usually in February so we can enjoy the whales too, and the other is in the spring or fall. We have seen anywhere between two and 6 or more mantas each time. Last February we could not dive for 3 days as the surf was too strong. I understand last Feb/March had several storms wiith strong surf. However, on the calmer days we did see mantas.

Also, Jack's Diving locker will post their dive findings each day. Check out the web site at www.jacksdivinglocker.com

Good luck!
 

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