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| MALDIVES AND INDIAN OCEAN |
30 / 07 / 08 |
THE MALDIVESFor any UK-based diver looking for manta rays, I recommend the Maldives. |  | |
Photo: Simon Rogerson
Photo: Simon Rogerson
Photo: Simon Rogerson
Photo: Simon Rogerson
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I've dived with mantas in nine different locations and each has its own merits, but if you're balancing the likelihood and quality of the encounter with the ease and expense of getting there, the Maldives is in a league of its own.
If you want to see mantas in the Maldives, you've got to plan for the seasons. The rays migrate from east to west, following plankton movement across the atolls - so from November to May you stand a better chance of seeing them on the western side, while from June to October you should base yourself on one of the eastern islands. Most tour operators should be able to help you book a well-placed resort at the right time.
To maximise your chances of seeing these angelic elasmobranchs, you should book
a liveaboard. That way, if there's some seasonal aberration with the plankton - or just plain old bad luck - you can search elsewhere. Good liveaboards here don't have itineraries: the guides rely on their knowledge of local and oceanic currents to predict which sites are likely to be productive.
Manta rays seem to be drawn to specific places for cleaning (usually by cleaner wrasse in the Maldives), socialising and feeding. One such reef is Donkalo in North Ari Atoll, which has yielded some of the world's best manta dives over the past five years. It is common to find three or four rays hovering in formation over the white sand, and if the divers manage to stay relaxed and give the mantas their space, they will often be rewarded with ultra-close approaches.
At certain times of the year, manta activity rises to a crescendo at the Maldives' hotspots. During these periods, it is possible to see dozens of rays streaming over sites such as Donkalo, Lankan in North Male Atoll or Madivaru Channel in South Ari. I once witnessed a full-on manta aggregation at Madivaru; perhaps the only spectacle to match it is the schooling hammerhead sharks of the eastern Pacific. Mantas were once considered diabolic because of the horn-like lobes on their heads. However, after decades of benign encounters we have begun to think of them more as angels.
I recently chartered the Maldives liveaboard Sea Queen for a group of rather demanding friends who hoped to see a mass aggregation. As it happened, the weather patterns were rather different this year, so while we did see groups of mantas, we didn't get to see the big shebang. On reflection, I think it's a testament to the Maldives that my group of over-experienced divers saw multiple mantas on every single dive at Donkalo, yet the ingrates still managed to be slightly disappointed.
The mantas are the subject of a six-year study by Anne-Marie Kitchen-Wheeler, a professional dive guide and marine biologist working with Maldives Scuba Tours. She has amassed an illustrated record of more than 1,400 different mantas, and in doing so has confirmed that the rays migrate across the atolls. 'I have shown that many mantas are resident to an atoll, but that certain individuals will travel long distances between atolls even during one monsoon period,' she said. 'From hundreds of observation surveys, I have been able
to describe several novel behaviours suggesting communication between animals, and skills being demonstrated by older, more experienced mantas to sub-adult and juvenile mantas as a form of skill training.'
So there's my pitch. If you want to see multiple mantas and enjoy some of the
best reefs for fish action in the world, the Maldives is impossible to beat. Maldives Scuba Tours (www.scubascuba.com; 0845 130 7210) is putting on some Manta Special liveaboard safaris on 12 October and 2 November this year for £1,528 for a week's trip including flights. Guaranteed mantas don't come cheap, but if you get to see 100 mantas over a week, you could think of it as £15 each.
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