mantas

[Mark Goodchild]

I agreed with most of what has been written here.

Yap is as close to a guarantee as you can get. See here for information.

Mozambique has a good chance and so does the Maldives.

I've just returned from an Australian dive trip and we dived in Coral Bay and also in the Coral Sea. We saw mantas on both parts of the trip and again there is a very good chance of seeing them. In Coral Bay they are year round and they use spotter planes to spot them from the air. Obviously this increases your chances significantly.

See my report here and manta ray videos and images here.

Added advantage here is you can also dive Exmouth and if you go at the right time of year almost definitely guarantee whale sharks too....

Hope this all helps.....and not too much information overload!

 

[silent running]

Hello bdm, as you can see there are plenty of places to see Mantas. The ones most commonly seen are the somewhat smaller(don't know the scientific name)kind that live in inshore waters. Their habits are predictable enough and ranges small enough that they are basically residents of certain reefs. The larger and less seldom seen are the oceanic variety and they don't spend as much time inshore but rather in the open ocean. I have seen many of the smaller inshore kind in Komodo. But the only time I've seen an oceanic Manta was in Milne Bay PNG. It was a good 15fter and it had a huge, thick body and a mouth big enough to swim into, really spectacular. I believe one of the best places to see the oceanic ones is Soccoro in Sea of Cortez. And there was somebody above mentioning a place in Indo where the oceanic ones were recently seen. Happy hunting-Andy