We love to get up-close-and-personal with wildlife (safely for everyone involved, including the animals we see), so we decided to do a Manta Ray snorkel excursion from Kailua-Kona.
First things first - if you don't know anything about Manta Rays, have a quick read of this: Manta Ray On Wikipedia. They're "gentle giants" - eating plankton through massive gill/filter structures, having no teeth and caring little about humans. They "fly" through the water with massive wings and they are wonderfully graceful as they do so.
Turns out their skin feels rather like a wet drywall sanding block - both spongy and rough. We found this out because despite our valiant efforts to keep our hands away, they kept circling below our lights (Manta Ray snorkling is a night-time affair) and coming very close to us with every pass. Personally, I was swiped by the beasts easily 10 times - from arms to legs.
The tour operator we used was My Kona Adventures - a smaller operator. We like smaller tours and we appreciate price breaks - they offer Groupon discounts and will 'make you a deal' for larger groups like ours. https://www.mykonaadventures.com/. You an book online.
We got suited up for colder water (again, it was at night)...
The Sheraton in Kona shines a light into the ocean nightly from the shoreline... they do this because it attracts plankton, which in turn attract Manta Rays who feed on them.
We thought we'd be stepping into the water for a snorkel into pitch-black water but, nope - our guides had already illuminated the ocean floor with their massive blue flood lights and sop we slipped into an eerily crystal-clear ocean instead.
Within a fee moments, Chelsea spotted a lobster on the ocean floor and one of our guides dove to grab it but just missed :(
Our guides positioned us near where Manta Rays were last seen and then came the Mantas... now it must be said that there were 5 other boats in the water when we arrived - most very big (20+ passengers). All those bodies were in the water with us - though we couldn't tell in the darkness and enough space is left between groups to make this irrelevant.
Looking down, at any given moment, we could see 2-5 Mantas. They swam in vertical loops to scoop up as much of the plankton gathering under the lights as possible. We saw Mantas as wide as 15ft - 5 in total. It was truly a magical experience - a unique sound and light show of immense value.
We would happily recommend My Kona Adventures and encourage anyone to try this out. We were, apparently, particularly lucky that night (plentiful Mantas), but regardless, seeing just a few dance for you is worth the money it costs to get there.
We saw a few solo snorkelers checking out the sights (DIY - no guides) - the Sheraton hotel's light is enough to attract Mantas all by itself - but Mantas are quickly lured away by the tour operators' more powerful lights. We'd definitely recommend purchasing a tour to experience this!
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| It's a bird, it's a plane - no - it's a Manta Ray!!! |
First things first - if you don't know anything about Manta Rays, have a quick read of this: Manta Ray On Wikipedia. They're "gentle giants" - eating plankton through massive gill/filter structures, having no teeth and caring little about humans. They "fly" through the water with massive wings and they are wonderfully graceful as they do so.
Turns out their skin feels rather like a wet drywall sanding block - both spongy and rough. We found this out because despite our valiant efforts to keep our hands away, they kept circling below our lights (Manta Ray snorkling is a night-time affair) and coming very close to us with every pass. Personally, I was swiped by the beasts easily 10 times - from arms to legs.
The tour operator we used was My Kona Adventures - a smaller operator. We like smaller tours and we appreciate price breaks - they offer Groupon discounts and will 'make you a deal' for larger groups like ours. https://www.mykonaadventures.com/. You an book online.
We got suited up for colder water (again, it was at night)...
 |
| Suited-up, new friend |
The Sheraton in Kona shines a light into the ocean nightly from the shoreline... they do this because it attracts plankton, which in turn attract Manta Rays who feed on them.
We thought we'd be stepping into the water for a snorkel into pitch-black water but, nope - our guides had already illuminated the ocean floor with their massive blue flood lights and sop we slipped into an eerily crystal-clear ocean instead.
Within a fee moments, Chelsea spotted a lobster on the ocean floor and one of our guides dove to grab it but just missed :(
Our guides positioned us near where Manta Rays were last seen and then came the Mantas... now it must be said that there were 5 other boats in the water when we arrived - most very big (20+ passengers). All those bodies were in the water with us - though we couldn't tell in the darkness and enough space is left between groups to make this irrelevant.
 |
| 2 at a time |
We would happily recommend My Kona Adventures and encourage anyone to try this out. We were, apparently, particularly lucky that night (plentiful Mantas), but regardless, seeing just a few dance for you is worth the money it costs to get there.
We saw a few solo snorkelers checking out the sights (DIY - no guides) - the Sheraton hotel's light is enough to attract Mantas all by itself - but Mantas are quickly lured away by the tour operators' more powerful lights. We'd definitely recommend purchasing a tour to experience this!
 |
| loop-de-loop |
The ginormous, genuine smiles of excitement and satisfaction on each of your faces says it all. Pics and video are tremendous, no question and....your joy, priceless!! Chelsea, your smile is from ear to ear, the absolute biggest smile I ever saw from you. Very cool y'all!
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