Royal Ballet In The Kingdom Of The Mantas‏

In all of his diving years, Keith has only seen Manta Rays twice - a baby when snorkelling in the Maldives and a couple on Rangiroa - but within minutes of entering the water in Miil Channel, he was being treated to a front row seat at a performance of the Manta Ballet.

The Manta is the largest species of rays, with the biggest recorded specimen's wingspan measured 7.6 metres. Recent studies have suggested that there are two sub species of Mantas, the Giant Manta, which migrates, and the Reef Manta (up to 4 metres), which doesn't.
You would have thought that such a massive creature would need to feed on something substantial, but it manages to thrive on minuscule stuff like plankton and fish larvae. To maximise the amount of food they filter through their gills they have distinctive trunk-like rudders either side of their huge mouth to guide the plankton in.

The waters immediately around Yap are rich in plankton, but further out it is a comparative desert. As a result the Reef Mantas have no reason (and would find it difficult) to leave, making Yap one of the only places on the planet where encounters with Manta Rays can be virtually guaranteed. They are so certain that you will see these magnificent creatures, that if you don't see any in seven days, Yap Divers, the original and best dive operation in the 'Kingdom of the Mantas', offers you your money back.

The easiest place to see Mantas is at one of the cleaning stations. There, small fish such as wrasse, remora, and angelfish swim in the Manta's gills and over its skin to feed, cleaning it of parasites and dead tissue. The cleaner wrasse is tiny, and the Manta huge, so it is the equivalent of using a toothbrush in a car wash. The Mantas have to pass through time and time again to get clean.

Not all of the waiting fish at the cleaning station are there for the good of their clients. Every now and again one of the Mantas will flinch in pain as a false cleaner wrasse takes a bite out of its mammoth victim.

If divers keep a low profile, and away from the middle of the station, the Mantas will arrive in numbers, at times passing within touching distance. They seem to sense that the divers offer no threat, and approach them out of curiosity. Having one of these 'stealth bombers of the ocean' flying inches above your head is one of the highlights of diving.

Keith enjoyed the experience so much that he returned to the cleaning station several times, and even took the unique PADI course on Manta Awareness, only offered by Yap Divers. With his new found knowledge he was able to identify males from females and even specific individuals from the markings on their underside.

Fortunately the cleaning station is in quite shallow water, so he was able to test out the claims of the waterproof (to 10 metres) Olympus Tough, and get some great shots and video of his memorable encounters.

Watching these graceful creatures glide on to the stage, one behind the other, dancing together above a silent orchestra, or pirouetting on their own, the Manta Ballet in Yap, has to be one of the great wildlife spectacles in the world.