August 19, 2018
Wow, Cyndi wanted to come to the Kadavu, Fiji area mainly to see manta rays and did she ever! She was with five at once at one point. I had one of the largest I’ve ever seen swim over me, slowly. So slowly that I was getting worried about getting to the surface to breathe. That was a first for me – manta-blocked ascent. There must be some kind of PADI class for that, don’t you think?
Here’s the video…
This seems to be a cleaning station rather than a location where they feed. The little rock with the most action was here: 18 51.533 S, 178 31.323 E. We went back several times and even saw one when we motored by on Legacy. They’re pretty easy to see from out of the water. Bombies just aren’t jet-black like this. When we got a little experience, we’d look for them from the dinghy and then jump in once we found one.
They weren’t exactly friendly, but the next best thing: unconcerned by our presence. I was worried that diving down would scare them away, but it didn’t (as you could see in the video). In fact, it seemed like they might have been a little curious as each time I rattled the dinghy anchor to get it set, one would show up. That could have been coincidence.
Sorry for the shaky camera work. That was Cyndi’s unstabilized Olympus Tough with some pretty heavy surface chop. We wish we’d had better visibility for the video, but oh well. We take what we can get.
-Rich
