Manta Rays

When does a fin not belong to a shark? When it's a Manta Ray. But check anyway, especially when you're a long way from the shore!

At the end of September I was lucky enough to spend a week on Lady Elliot Island snorkelling and diving. The highlight of the week was seeing Manta Rays for the first time. And I got to see them twice. I nearly missed them the first time. While snorkelling, I swam through water full of red floating particles and invisible biting things. This was all forgotten when during a short break at the surface, I saw a fin pass by. I freaked out and looked below the surface to see what was there.That didn't help much because I was faced with a sea creature I hadn’t seen before. Manta Rays are enormous. The one in front of me had a wing-span of about three metres and a stinger about 1.5 metres long. This is small on the scale for Mantas - they have been spotted to over 7m wide. The dirty water I was swimming in was actually a cloud of plankton that had attracted the filter-feeding Manta. I was a little nervous when the Manta swam straight for me with its mouth open. We swam with them for about 15 minutes, but with a sudden thrust of their wings, they were away and soon lost in the gloom.

The second time I got to see Manta Rays was on a dive. We saw three at once, and as you can see from the photo, one was the typical colouring of black on top and white underneath (far right side). The other two were mostly black, which is rare on this island. They were all swimming around a cleaning station manned by Wrasse, where the dive leaders said they were regular visitors. It was unbelievable swimming with these giants, and I can't wait to go back to Lady Elliot to see them again.