Tag Archives: manta rays

Manta Ray Escapades

One of the main reasons we wanted to come to the Astrolabe Reef was to see the manta rays.  We had heard that there is a “cleaning station” and a good area where they feed near Vurolevu island.  This is a mere 1.5nm from Yabu where we are anchored.  

What is a “cleaning station”? A Manta Ray Cleaning Station is a location where fish, sharks, and mantas gather to get a regular hygiene check by parasitic copepods and a variety of small cleaner wrasse. Mantas spend some hours of the day here to get their gills, and skin cleaned.

Vurolevu Island and the Manta Rays

The next morning we head to Vurolevu island with the hopes of finding a few mantas.  As we approach the northern tip and slow the dinghy down, we immediately spot a large manta in the water.  Sweet.  In I go!

There is a nice current here with the water flow delivering delicious plankton into the mouths of these gentle giants.  I enjoy the alone time with 2 medium sized mantas (wing span of about 2-2.5 meters).

Within 15 minutes I am joined by 3 other tourists and decide to head to where Matt is which is about 300 yards from me.  SCORE!  He found the cleaning station.  Check out all the little fish having a field day with these mantas!  They swim around, under, and inside the mantas.  Yes, they swim inside their mouth and come out their gills!  Silly or brave, not sure which?

Manta Rays will jump out of the water to rid themselves of parasites (if they are not near a cleaning station).  They also jump out of the water when they want to impress a lady and or to simply play.

A Cleaning Station

There was no current over where we were swimming, so we could literally just hang out and admire these beauties!  Even though these animals are ginormous, they are not dangerous.  Some of the manta rays that we saw here had a wing span of 4.5-5 meters!  We are talking really, really huge!

But, mantas are harmless and can’t hurt swimmers.  We have found them to be very curious creatures and will often swim up next to and below you if you stay calm and still enough.  They really are delicate animals with no aggressive behaviors and are known to not be predatory in nature.

What do manta rays eat?

Mantas are filter feeders feeding on microscopic plankton near the surface of the water.  They glide back and forth high current areas gathering plankton. A manta ray eats 19,200,000 pieces of plankton every week – that’s a lot of plankton!

Did you know that the closest relative to a manta ray is a shark?  Unlike sharks, mantas don’t have teeth.  They sieve plankton out of the water using a row of tiny plates in their mouth, which they funnel in as they swim. 

One manta came so close to me that I actually saw him looking at me – honestly, he was checking me out!

I wanted to show you how very large these creatures were, but Matt was so far away that it is hard to get a perspective.  And, he happened to go below with a juvenile, not a full size manta.

Hurt Mantas

The natural predators for manta rays are sharks and whales.  Despite their large size and fast speeds, they do get hurt.

We saw several mantas with broken wings and bites out of their tail area.  Their wings naturally flow seamlessly to a fine point, but two of the mantas had their wing tips bent down.  It did not seem to slow them down.  Another two mantas had semi circle bites out of their left tail area.

Did you know?

  • Manta rays have the largest brain to size ratio of any cold-blooded fish?  
  • They have huge brains – the biggest of any fish! 
  • Believed to be as smart and highly cognitive as dolphins, primates, and elephants.
  • Studies have found that their brains are especially developed for learning, problem solving and communicating.
  • Some scientist believe that mantas can recognize their reflection, a sign of self-awareness.

The events from this blog occurred in early September 2022.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  We visit many island near the Astrolabe reef in our last blog post.

Manta Ray Exploits

Matt and I have had the extreme pleasure of swimming with manta rays in French Polynesia many times.  But it was usually 2-3 at the most and they were no bigger than 3 meter wing span.  Still incredibly impressive!  However, we take the Konis family to Dawaqa island to the famous manta ray feeding area and are overwhelmed with our Fijian Manta Ray experience!

Day 5: Waya to Drawaqa & the Manta Rays

 A 2-hour motor sail from Waya island to Drawaqa Island. Kimberly woke up feeling sick unfortunately, but she weathered thru the short passage really well.  We managed to arrive right at high tide which was perfect timing to go find the manta rays in the pass between Drawaqa Island and Naviti Island.  They feed in this pass during this time of year.  Matt and Kimberly stayed in the dinghy and dropped the rest of us off to drift the pass.  The first time we saw about 4 manta rays circling around us with their giant mouths wide open trying to catch the plankton.

Matt picked us up and we swam the pass a second time and this time we saw 7/8 mantas!  Two of them had a wing span of over 5-meters!  They were enormous.  And they treated us to a spectacular underwater acrobatic flipping show.  They flipped upside down and all around each other!

It was by far the most magnificent manta experience I have ever had.  I think the Konis boys were super impressed as well.

In the afternoon we walked the beach in search of sea shells and other treasures.  Remarkably, we found two nautilus shells.  I had been looking for one of these shells for years and was so darn excited to find one.  Later, Cole found a smaller one for Kimberly.

Matt fixed tuna four different ways for dinner.  Seared, poison crew, poki and cooked/blackened (for me).  Spoiling our guests.

Day 6:  Drawaqa Island to Nanuya Lailai (Blue Lagoon)

Our sail was a bit “challenging” for the Konis family.  It was really bumpy and uncomfortable as we were pinching into the wind to get from Drawaqa island to Nanuya Lailai.  Not a good way to endear our family to boat life, but they weathered it through (mostly sleeping).

We took it easy once we arrived.  A little swimming around the boat, some baking and dinner preparations.  We actually watched “Blue Lagoon” while we were anchored in Blue Lagoon – right where the movie was filmed oh so many years ago.  I completely forgot how much nudity was in this movie!!!

Day 7: Nanuya Lailai to Saw-I-Lau (caves)

Up early the next day to walk the beach.  We presented kava to the local villagers who are the caretakes of this private beach to allow us the opportunity to walk on their beach.  It was a super pretty day and the beach was soft and white while the waters were a stunning turquoise blue.  Yep, that is Sugar Shack in the background on the lower left photo.

The beach seemed endless and was simply gorgeous.  The tide was going out so the Konis men took a stroll deep into the shallow waters.

Kimberly decided to stand under a coconut tree to read the sign that says “Do not stand under the trees due to falling coconuts”

We were all thirsty after our walk so we stopped off at The Boathouse for some drinks prior to our lunch. We had lunch at the Nanuya Lailai Resort restaurant. It was a flat $45F per person and you had a choice between 3 plates.  It was not bad, but not particularly great either.

After lunch we hopped back on the boat and headed to Sawa-I-Lau which was a 2-hour motor sail.  We dropped the hook and quickly hopped in the dinghy to Nabukeru Village to present sevusevu.  I was so excited at the opportunity to show my family a traditional sevusevu, but we were denied again.  It was Sunday and the chief was resting.  He did accept us into his home where we presented our kava and he blessed us and welcomed us into the village.  However, it was far from a traditional sevusevu.  It was a clap, clap, thank you for the kava, you may walk the beach.

We bought a fabulous stalk of bananas and some lovely sea shells from the locals. I then took everyone on a dinghy ride to admire the rock formations.

Events from this blog occurred during the first two weeks of August.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events. Coming up next we swim inside the limestone caves! In our last blog we take the Konis family to Waya Island (Octopus Resort) where we do a crazy hike to the summit.

Underwater Adventures in Tahanea

Our adventures continue in Tahanea both on shore and underwater.  If you missed our last blog on Tahanea, click here.

The winds were shifting so we decided to move to one of our favorite anchorages called “7.”  It got its popular name from the reef that forms a “7” which can be seen from google earth (top photo) The lower photo shows the top of the “7” in the foreground.

Matt was able to fly the drone to capture this amazing photo of the reef with Sugar Shack in the lower edge.  Our battery was super low so we could not go higher to show you the entire reef, but you get the general idea from this shot.

Unfortunately for us the winds shifted rather quickly.  We only got to spend one night here before it was time to move to a new anchorage.

The Pass Anchorage

The exciting thing about being at the pass anchorage is snorkeling the pass with the manta rays.  A large group of us went to explore the reef outside the passes and then drifted in the north pass to play with the mantas.

These massive, gentle creatures are super curious and will come up to you if you remain calm and still.  They simply take your breath away as they glide through the water collecting plankton.  Truly majestic beauties.

A rather large spotted ray also came to pay us a visit but stayed pretty far below us.

We had many beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

One evening, we all enjoyed a beach BBQ and watched the sun set as the moon rose.  Nothing like great friends, tasty food, and beauty all around.

Matt broke out the drone for shots of the Tahanea anchorage.  We are super close to shore, even though it does not look like it in the photo.  Remember, we are only in 1.5m of water.  The little black things around Sugar Shack are coral heads which have to be avoided by the boat and our anchor chain.

These photos show the motus near the pass and the passes.  In the top photo you can see the middle pass (at the bottom) and the north pass (top).  The photo was taken at slack tide which is why it is so calm and “serene.”

A few more sunrise photos.

Diving Tahanea Reef

Matt went diving with our friends on Pico (Andreas and Sandra) while our other friends on Sea Rose and I followed them snorkeling.  One of our regulators is leaking so I could not go with Matt.  But we had a fantastic time checking out the underwater reef world between the two passes during slack tide.

Happy girl in Tahanea

Sugar Shack is happy in Tahanea (photo courtesy of Sandra on Pico)

And Matt captured this amazing photo with the sun rising and the moon setting.  The moon can be seen just off our bow and to the left of the monohulls.

NW Anchorage

Matt and I wanted to explore a new anchorage so we headed to the NW side of the atoll.  It is “unexplored” territory as there is nothing in the compendium, nothing on the charts and no tracks.  It is about 7.5nm away from the pass anchorage.  We encountered no problems even though we left at low tide (not smart for a new path).

The anchorage was littered with coral heads so we floated our chain in the largest sandy spot.  Super pretty, untouched motu with a bijillion palm trees.

We explored around the large motu which was difficult to walk on as it was covered in large rock and corals.  There were no sandy parts or small pebbly parts.  But we did find a little camp site created by a local for his copra work. 

Some people have a shoe fetish and others (who don’t wear shoes) have a different kind of fetish…

And this is not all of them

And this is not all of them

Check out this site for more underwater adventures in Tahanea.

Events from this blog post occurred during the end of May, 2021.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.