Tales from the Logbook-- Reef Manta Ray Diving in Kona

 

As darkness falls, Luke and I descended with the rest of our group to our designated area in 35 feet of water a short distance from the boat.  Our dive boat is one of many vessels crammed into Garden Eel Cove/Manta Heaven on the Kona coast of the island of Hawaii.  So many vessels have brought people to watch the manta rays feed tonight that the installed boat moorings are quickly occupied.  Thereafter, boats tie up to each other, bow-to-stern, in a daisy chain of as many as three vessels.  

Our dive guide, Carrie, placed a bright light pointed toward the surface in the center of our semicircle of kneeling divers.  It became our “campfire” illuminating swarms of plankton in the aura of its blinding brilliance.  We each grasped a hand-held underwater light also pointed to the surface to further illuminate the plankton.  I adjusted my buoyancy and position to find the stationary balance and minimize the effects of a light surge.  Looking around I could sense many other “campfires” across the seafloor, each with a group of divers huddled around.  Light also shown from above from the many boats crammed into the cove and the snorkelers on the surface on floating frames and pool noodles.

Almost immediately, a few reef mantas (Manta alfredi) arrive and feed on the illuminated plankton.  Soon, more mantas careen through the water column barely avoiding bumping the kneeling divers or colliding with one another.  We watched the critters graciously loop-the-loop across the area rising and descending through the water column.  The area quickly fills with more swooping manta rays.  The very frenetic feeding frenzy or, more accurately, a feeding scrum forms.  Countless mantas circle in and out of the light sometimes thumping into the kneeling divers or brushing by each other. 

The resulting manta “aquabatics” never gets dull.  At times, I am looking right down the gullet of the manta at it cartilaginous interior. At other times, I flinch as the manta passes over me.  Another manta bumps me from behind as it dives into the light. 

In the excitement and wonder of the show, the 45-minute bottom time passes quickly.  Our dive guide extinguishes the campfire, retrieves the light, and leads our group back to the boat.  We ascend directly to the surface at the bow of the boat.  We forego the three-minute stop at 15 feet on this dive. With the boat traffic in the area and divers ascending and descending, it is safer to skip the stop.

Everyone returned to the boat quite exhilarated by the spectacle of the swooping and soaring mantas! Three times I have seen the performance and it always is breathtaking.  “Many, Many” may be the most accurate count of the number of mantas that showed up for the feeding.   Manta Ray Heaven has lived up to its reputation.

A Very Popular Activity

The Manta Ray diving and snorkeling experience ranks high among the top “must do” activities by Trip Advisor for the Island of Hawaii.  I recommend the activity whenever someone mentions they are going to Kona.  Given the stream of visitors that travel from Anchorage to Kona, that is a lot of recommendations. Like me, many have done the activity multiple times.  Most of them do it from the surface; I have always done it on scuba.

Big Island Now reporter Megan Mosely described the experience.[1]

“The manta ray night dive off the coast of Kona is on the bucket list of many divers from around the world. It is a unique experience for snorkelers, too.  Tour operators bring bright lights, which attract plankton, a yummy meal for the manta rays. To gobble up the plankton, the majestic black and white sea creatures — with distinctive markings and wing spans of about 12 feet — swoop through the water with their mouths open. It looks like a choreographed dance, watching them gracefully swim through the water, turning and somersaulting, often within a few feet of divers. For many, it’s mesmerizing and magical.”

The article estimates that up to 60 boats per day visit Garden Eel Cove.  Proposed regulations would limit the number of boats per day, the hours of operation, and the time that any single boat could be on site.  It would also limit the number of commercial licenses to 24 operators.  Some current operators could lose their license if the regulations go through. 

Efforts by the Department of Land and Natural Resources to establish more strict regulations over the years have proven difficult.[2]

 The Hawaiian legislature passed HB 1039 in 2023 that would have provided a legislative solution for commercial manta viewing licenses but the bill was vetoed by the Governor.[3]

A recent article in SFGate, 'Bad practices': The controversy behind an unforgettable Hawaii experience describes some of the dangers and consequences to both the human and manta participants.  It reports that up to 290 persons can be on site for the encounter. [4]

Manta viewing is a staple for boat operators and dive shops.  Advertising for the encounters are ubiquitous throughout Kona.  You can even book a snorkeling experience at the Kona Costco.  .  The operator I used reported that they might do as many as three trips to the site per night.  They do an educational program on-site about manta ray natural history prior to the dive.  The briefing, using manta hand puppets, explains the creature’s physiology and behavior. The guides don’t pass up an opportunity to throw in one-line dad jokes.  Some of the shtick is so corny it is actually funny.  A lot of information is conveyed through the accompanying theatrics and the people on board enjoy the show. 

Dive Log

Each of the three times that I have done the manta ray viewing on Kona, I went with a company that  offered a two tank dive package—a late afternoon dive in the Garden Eel Cove area (during which we did encounter manta rays) and the night dive around the campfire.  Each time we had multiple mantas show up and put on a heck of a display. 

Date	Dive	Depth and Duration	Dive Buddy
Wednesday,4-3-2013	Garden Eel Cove	70 feet for 45 minutes	Justin Lima
Wednesday,4-3-2013	Garden Eel Cove (Manta)	35 feet for 45 minutes	Justin Lima
Thursday, 3-29-2018	Garden Eel Cove	73 feet for 50 minutes	Luke Lima
Thursday, 3-29-2018	Garden Eel Cove (Manta)	33 feet for 45 minutes	Luke Lima
Tuesday, 3-28-2023	Garden Eel Cove	68 feet for 49 minutes	Luke Lima
Tuesday, 3-28-2023	Garden Eel Cove (Manta)	35 feet for 45 minutes	Luke Lima

 

I can only add to the hyperbole by describing my experience as “magical, magnificent, and memorable.”  I think my teenaged dive buddies, two of my nephews, found the encounter as I described.  In the case of Luke, the video of his older brother’s dive may have been a factor inspiring him to learn to dive.   I certainly enjoyed watching their wide-eyed amazement and enthusiasm.  I guarantee that no one will have the reaction of “meh.”

The Kona manta dive was not my first encounter with these magnificent creatures.  During a December 2010 dive trip on the Nautilus Explorer to the Revillagigedo Archipelago, 300 miles south of the tip of Baja, Mexico, we dived on an underwater pinnacle where the mantas lined up like so many jet liners lines up for an approach to LAX.  That experience will be the subject of a future blog entry.

Closing Thoughts

I have previously written about my manta encounters and the changing human view of these majestic creatures.

The irony that our human-manta encounters may be detrimental to the very thing we treasure is not lost on me.  I do not have an answer to the dilemma faced by the Hawaiians involved in this issue.  I have found that regulations that create barriers to entry for operators often raise the costs for participants making the activity less egalitarian and much more exclusive.  Favoring the longest operating companies may be unfair to new entrants with more innovative approaches.  Education and implementing best practices can certainly help to mitigate but cannot eliminate effects.  These problems are not unique to manta viewing.  These considerations frame decisions regarding all fisheries, both consumptive and non-consumptive. 

 

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[1] Mosely, Meghan.  Big Island manta ray tour operators mixed about proposed rules, possible new law.  Big Island Now.  June 18, 2023.  https://bigislandnow.com/2023/06/18/big-island-manta-ray-tour-operators-mixed-about-proposed-rules-possible-new-law/  accessed July 5, 2023

[2]https://mantarayadvocates.com/manta-ray-tourism-regulations-2024-update/

[3] https://legiscan.com/HI/bill/HB1090/2023

[4] Christine Hitt.  Bad Practices: The controversy behind an unforgettable Hawaii experience.  SFGate, August, 18, 2024.  https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/manta-ray-tour-kona-big-island-19652621.php