Hammerhead and Manta Ray Dive Sites in SE Asia (any suggestions where to go)

[Joe Garrity]

I've looked at a number of places on the internet that claim to be well known for such dives. Trouble is, the populations of hammerheads have dwindled so much, that these places now state the sightings have become rare occurrences.

I'd prefer to plan a trip for the Philippines, but I'm open to other destinations in SE Asia if the sighting are certain and I would inevitably see them within a few diving attempts.

Anyone know of such a place I could consider?

 

[Luko]

In indonesia you could schedule within a 2 weeks august trip diving with hammerheads and manta rays.
Bali : Manta rays, even snorkeling at surface level at manta bay, up to ten specimen in one dive.
South Lombok : hammerheads on "the magnet"
Komodo : Manta rays at Tanjung Makassar, though I never saw any.
Alor : Hammerheads on current Alley, a site which is only dived by Alor Eco divers and can bring 50 hammerheads in one dive.

 

[Joe Garrity]

Thanks for the feedback.

Lombok and Alor sound interesting. What are the odds a sighting is most certain? One in three, one in four?

 

[high/baric]

Can't comment on the hammerheads, but as Luko mentioned you can have a very high chance of spotting mantas on Bali, more specifically Nusa Penida island right next to Bali. You can do a day trip to Lembongan from Denpasar. Most if not all dive ops on Lembongan arrange manta dives almost daily. On the trip to Manta Point/Bay they usually arrange a dive at Crystal Bay, where you have a higher than usual chance of spotting the ocean sunfish (although it's very rare even there).

 

[charlier]

What a wonderful topic, Manta and Hammerheads dive sites in SE Asia. Perhaps Luko was a bit tongue in cheek for his suggestions for a two week trip diving in Indonesia.
Manta Point, N. Penida - Very good chance of seeing 1-5 mantas, but never 100%. Give it three dive days and you will see mantas. You will also see lots of other divers and bubbles, unless you go to Bali in off-season. Mola2 are present at many Nusa Penida dive sites, so I would not limit yourself to Crystal Bay.
South Lombok - Good luck, but hammerheads at Magnet are not as common as advertised.
Alor - hammerheads are seasonal. The presence of upwelling cold water and strong currents are helpful. Full or new moon = strong currents and sometimes crazy in the Pantar Straits. Hammerheads mostly stay below ~28m, so get used to diving to 30+ meters.
Komodo has many dive sites with Manta's, but many divers come back from north and south Komodo without encountering mantas.
Banda Sea - great place for migrating hammerheads, but its hit and miss.

I would not focus on the probabilities. My personal advice is - set you expectations low and you will by happy. With low expectations, you will always surpass your expectations.

In indonesia you could schedule within a 2 weeks august trip diving with hammerheads and manta rays.
Bali : Manta rays, even snorkeling at surface level at manta bay, up to ten specimen in one dive.
South Lombok : hammerheads on "the magnet"
Komodo : Manta rays at Tanjung Makassar, though I never saw any.
Alor : Hammerheads on current Alley, a site which is only dived by Alor Eco divers and can bring 50 hammerheads in one dive.

 

[Luko]

The dive site name, however, is Manta Point.
There is a dive spot called Manta Bay as well, but to my knowledge there haven't been mantas there for years.
On the trip to Manta Point they usually arrange a dive at Crystal Bay

There are 3 manta ray dive sites in Penida :
Manta bay 1 and 2, manta bay 2 is a small bay behind manta bay 1, there are mantas seen there every year, sometimes dozens of them feeding on surface.
Manta point is a cleaning station further away than manta bay.
Personally I have seen more mantas in Manta bay than Manta point.
In 6 dives on those 3 sites I came across mantas in 5 occasions, Only once I didin't get any mantas but 3 molamola instead. The problem is more about the surf than the probability of spotting mantas, you can give yourself 3 days in Lembongan to go at least once to either site, then it's a 80% probability..

Personally I wouldn't dive manta point and Crystal bay within one day trip. I woudlln't recommend those dive centres that organize such trips.
Both need to be dived early morning, crystal bay is deep and it's certainly a first dive, plus in the morning you could as well spot threshers or moalmola before the crowds of Bali centres are kicking fins and stirring up the water, frightneing anything bigger than grouper.

Alor - hammerheads are seasonal. The presence of upwelling cold water and strong currents are helpful. Full or new moon = strong currents and sometimes crazy in the Pantar Straits. Hammerheads mostly stay below ~28m, so get used to diving to 30+ meters.

From what I understand they can be seen in Alor from April to at least September (I didn't even ask for october and november), hence it's quite an extensive season, diving the correct moon phase is a better bet, in 4 dives on Current Alley, we had two sightings of hammerheads, from 6 to 50 specimens. Not a bad rate but don't expect to go more than twice or exceptionnally 3 times on current alley within a 9 days stay. Hence you could as well come back with no sighting.
It's deep, you will hit 40m along a wall, then hook against raging current on a coral plateau around 30m and wait for the hammerheads in the blue down to 35m. You may also spot a silky in the hammerhead school and ertainly other types of reef sharks like grey reef and whitetips.

 

[high/baric]

There are 3 manta ray dive sites in Penida :
Manta bay 1 and 2, manta bay 2 is a small bay behind manta bay 1, there are mantas seen there every year, sometimes dozens of them feeding on surface.
Manta point is a cleaning station further away than manta bay.
Personally I have seen more mantas in Manta bay than Manta point.
In 6 dives on those 3 sites I came across mantas in 5 occasions, Only once I didin't get any mantas but 3 molamola instead. The problem is more about the surf than the probability of spotting mantas, you can give yourself 3 days in Lembongan to go at least once to either site, then it's a 80% probability..

Yes, that is correct, Manta Point is a cleaning station. Moreover, the visibility there is usually 10-15 meters, so not stellar. I was diving there just last week and what I said about Manta Bay is based on what the dive guides told me then and actually diving Manta Bay once (no mantas then). However, it was a fantastic macro dive, with at least half a dozen different species of nudibranch, so no regrets there. Manta Point on the other hand is sort of a one-trick-horse, you watch the mantas and then leave. I'm any case, I suggest asking your op for the up-to-date info on manta sightings if you decide to go to Lembongan.

 

[Luko]

Perhaps Luko was a bit tongue in cheek for his suggestions for a two week trip diving in Indonesia.

Not that much, to everyone their holiday duration,I understand some people cannot afford more than that ... Alor+Bali/Lembongan trip would take only 2 weeks.

---------- Post added July 14th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ----------

Yes, that is correct, Manta Point is a cleaning station. Moreover, the visibility there is usually 10-15 meters, so not stellar. I was diving there just last week and what I said about Manta Bay is based on what the dive guides told me then and actually diving Manta Bay once (no mantas then). However, it was a fantastic macro dive, with at least half a dozen different species of nudibranch, so no regrets there. Manta Point on the other hand is sort of a one-trick-horse, you watch the mantas and then leave. I'm any case, I suggest asking your op for the up-to-date info on manta sightings if you decide to go to Lembongan.

When you were brought to Manta bay, did your boat go to manta bay 2 to check whether mantas where there? Manta bay 1 & 2 are easy to check, mantas are swimming at surface level : a good Lembongan dive centre would bring you to Manta bay 1, check, manta bay 2, check and if the visual result were negative would g to Toyapakeh or elsewhere.
Uusually mantas come and go, they'd be here and suddenly disappear and come back next week,it's a matter of current bringing plankton, hence it's better to use a Lembongan operation with no obligation to dive for mantas on precise days and that will check and decide exactly on the day whether they will dive the site or change. While Bali operations announce "manta diving" and are committed to dive manta bay/point whatever there is.

---------- Post added July 14th, 2015 at 01:08 PM ----------

btw I am chatting with a friend I sent to Lembongan and who's currently diving this week, he's telling me he had a Mola2 on crystal bay early morning and some mantas on manta bay later in the morning. Though he reckons he had LOTS of mantas on manta point today although with bad viz and lots of newbie divers.
Hence it looks your guide told you the usual dive centre BS in order to save his dive reputation or excuse the dive boat protocol letting divers jump out of the boat without any manta sightings on surface : facts are there are mantas on all manta sites currently. What was that dive centre?

 

[high/baric]

I checked at least 5 ops and they all offered almost daily trips to Crystal Bay + Manta Point. In fact many of them did not seem to arrange dives to any other sites than those two. I got to dive Manta Bay only by special request and by luck that there were some others interested in the site. I guess they change the targets of their daily trips according to where it is most likely to see mantas. This is starting to get too far off original topic, so I'll just suggest again to check with your op for current status of sightings. I will edit my earlier post as the info I had on Manta Bay seems to have been inaccurate.

 

[Luko]

I checked at least 5 ops and they all offered almost daily trips to Crystal Bay + Manta Point. In fact many of them did not seem to arrange dives to any other sites than those two. I got to dive Manta Bay only by special request and by luck that there were some others interested in the site. I guess they change the targets of their daily trips according to where it is most likely to see mantas. This is starting to get too far off original topic, so I'll just suggest again to check with your op for current status of sightings. I will edit my earlier post as the info I had on Manta Bay seems to have been inaccurate.

I suppose you were located on Bali not on Lembongan, right?
this is why Crystal bay looks like a jacuzzi from 9AM onwards and why I recommend using Lembongan dive centres. who will change their itinerary with consideration to the current situation.
Some of the most interesting dive sites in Penida are Mangroves, Toyapakeh and SD, whale sharks are sometimes seen there and Mola2 sights are often more frequent on Toyapakeh and Buyuk.

On the contrary, I think it's spot on to the initial topic : the OP will see with this example that it will be better to dive with Lembongan dive centers who can change their plan on short notice, than the Bali based dive centers with fixed itineraries.