Kona Manta Dives Reliable All Year Round?

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cleung

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Location
Collingwood, Ontario
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Thinking about going to Kona in late August or early September when water temps are warmest. Are the manta dives there pretty reliable all year round, ie., able to see them each week?
 
For some value of reliable. They were cancelled on Dec 31 due to waves being too big. Jan 3 the harbor was closed completely, no boats went out. On jan 4 they had one manta and the surge was apparently pushing the divers around a lot. Yesterday (the day I went) the water was fine (though a bit of surge) and we had one big Manta, "Lefty" I think, and two baby mantas. It was still totally worth it. The snorkelers seemed to have a blast too based on the squealing and yelling going on.
 
Year round... every week? Nope, we were in Kona during Xmas week specifically for the night manta dives and had our dive cancelled. About the time we arrived on the island so did major swell conditions. Our operator cancelled and others did too. Cancellations were multiple day. We were able to do regular daytime dives in areas that were more sheltered, but the night manta dive site was too exposed. Conditions were really rough. Great for surfing; not so great for diving.

I visited with several (3) different operators as we plan to return to do the dive. All suggested booking during the summer or fall rather than winter. Evidently, the winter season often produces conditions that make diving more of a challenge. There are no guarantees with weather and ocean conditions.

We were also told that water temps don't change much seasonally off Kona. The operators (all three) seemed to agree that high 70's year around is the norm. Of course, I'm assuming the operators were being straight with me.

We haven't decided when we'll try again, but we're considering dates in July or October.

-AZTinman
 
Anecdotally, my buddy dove with 20+ one night in late July. YMMV

Maybe contact Kerry at Kona Diving Company for a realistic expectation.
Which is really all anyone can do - sometimes they just don't show up.

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Thanks everyone - at least this is kind of telling me that there really isn't any season for these dives since the operators seem to be offering them all year round. Then it makes sense to go when the seas are hopefully not as rough, maybr during summer to early fall.
 
They do run them every night when conditions allow. However this is less common in winter then other times. I scheduled two manta dives, one happened. For the non-manta dives I spent pretty much the entire week at a few protected dive sites as the others were too exposed. They were pretty nice sites, but it would have been nice to see some others. I was told those were the only ones really usable without a 1.5 hour or more trip each way and my schedule prohibited taking the long-range advanced trips.
 
One of the operators I booked with suggested that we book a return trip in October after the Ironman Competition. She indicated the weather conditions were usually favorable and there's something of a lull in visitor traffic. Of course, there are never guarantees with weather and sea conditions.

My wife have concluded that the next time we book, we'll book the night manta dive twice. Once on the front end of our trip and once on the back end of our trip. If we do encounter bad weather conditions or other issues, we might have enough of a window to get in one. Who knows, maybe we'll even get to do it twice.

It probably goes without saying that the mantas don't just show up to entertain divers; it's about eating. Heavy surge can reduce the availability of the plankton mantas eat on the dive site most Kona operators use. Less food means fewer mantas.

We were disappointed when our manta dives got cancelled, but despite challenging conditions, my day dives were really enjoyable. The reef fishes and colors of the coral were amazing. I got some great photos.

Sometimes you get lucky. On our last day of diving a whale shark showed up near the dive site. I heard whale sharks aren't very common in Hawaii. We didn't get to dive with mantas, but we got to swim with a whale shark.

-AZTinman
 
I've done more than a dozen winter trips to Kona, mid-November through early April, ranging from 2 to 6 weeks in length. I'm in the dive shop nearly every day, and usually checking the manta reports among other things. I don't recall mantas being particularly unusual or episodic during those stays, though there was at least one stretch of several days or more with little action. Maybe winters are a little leaner for manta sightings, I don't go June-Oct.

I also recall only a handful of stretches lasting more than 2 days or so at a time of sufficiently high swells to shut us out of most of the shore-accessible sites. Days- to week-long runs of fairly flat water have been far more common. I would not at all characterize the Kona winter seas as typically rough, though the northern winter storms do affect conditions now and then. On the plus side, the trade winds are less in winter. I've heard it said that the Kona seas are actually flatter in winter, except when storm swells are coming through. Even then, it's not uncommon to hear of 20 ft seas on northshore Oahu while shore diving Kona stays very pleasant. Kona is somewhat shielded from north swells by Maui.

I don't do a whole lot of boat diving there but I often see where the big boats are going, and in my estimation they are fairly conservative about site selection. I've had them motor up to mooring buoys then move along elsewhere, because of what seems to me only a slight bit of surge. I go with Big Island Divers and cannot recall a trip that didn't have at least two very novice divers aboard. I suspect the big boat ops are all like that, it's mostly vacation clientele. Going with one of the smaller outfits might produce more opportunity. The manta dive is one where they are naturally going to be conservative, since you spend it sitting upright on the bottom.

There is definitely an annual sea temperature cycle, with the low in Feb-Mar. I don't know the stats but it's at least several degrees colder at that time, and from what I hear the low can vary quite a bit from year to year. One year it was almost undiveable in a 2.5mm fullsuit, but everyone said it was freakishly cold.
 
I think I'll target September as it is usually the warmest month for water from the reports and there could be less crowds as the kids are back in school. Thanks for all your feedback folks.
 
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