They are possibly the marine creatures that divers love the most, but where do you go for the best manta encounters, and what else is there to see?
Photo: Alex Mustard
We've narrowed it down to two destinations - Simon Rogerson reckons
it has to be the Maldives, while Alex Mustard argues the case for Mexico's Revillagigedos Islands. Read the individual articles below:
Global manta hotspots
✓ Great Astrolabe Reef, Fiji: busy cleaning station close to Matava resort
✓ Koh Bon, Thailand: good encounters from February to April
✓ Komodo Island, Indonesia: giant rays; generally skittish
✓ Kona, Hawaii: feeding rays on world-class night dive
✓ Maldives: scattered aggregation of sites; good success rate
✓ Mesharifa, Sudan: surface encounters with feeding rays; best in summer
✓ Nusa Penida, Indonesia: reliable mantas. but a long boat ride from Bali
✓ Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico: the world's friendliest mantas
✓ Sangalaki Island, Indonesia: friendly rays at surface; good success rate
✓ Tobago, Caribbean: sporadic encounters; best in January-February
✓ Yap, Micronesia: frequent encounters in the channels; well-documented population
Diving Nusa Penida would have to be my strong reccomendation. It is one of the only places worldwide that i have dived that 99% assures you will see mantas! I have dived many locations each time the operator assuring me that i will see them at "MANTA POINT" but i always seem to come up dissapointed! But not here in Bali, I think in the one year i have been here, diving the point many times a week i have only failed to see less than 2 mantas on 2 occassions!
