Manta Moments from Around the World
March 2024
This month we are excited to have an entry from Prince Hussain Aga Khan, the founder of Focused on Nature (FON), which was established in 2014 to support global conservation, advocacy and research efforts through financial contributions to some of the world's leading conservation organisations as well as significant grassroots initiatives.
As a passionate conservation photographer, who is equally as obsessed with manta rays as we are, we wanted to hear all about his favourite manta moments from around the world!
An oceanic manta ray investigates Prince Hussain in Mexico. © Prince Hussain Aga Khan
‘Mantas are magnificent, magical, mystical beings. Nothing in the world is more graceful, elegant, mobile, mysterious or physically impressive. And perhaps no other creature on the planet looks more like an alien spacecraft!
Most of us grew up seeing them in documentaries and books, admiring them and dreaming that one day we might just be lucky enough to see one.
How extremely lucky then I have been!
From seeing a gigantic ray overhead in the Bahamas circa 1990 to observing them in a multitude of locations around the world since. My admiration and love grow exponentially every single time I see one – or one notices my group, comes over and checks us out one by one before turning around and heading back into the deep blue sea it calls home.
Cleaning stations, whether managed by cleaner wrasse in warmer waters or barber fish in colder ones, are a favourite, a sight to behold and the centre of activity one can’t find anywhere else.
An oceanic manta ray stops off at a cleaning station, to have it’s body cleaned of dead skin and parasites by small fish. © Prince Hussain Aga Khan
Yap, the hotspot in Micronesia friends and I went to in 1992 and 2000, was an incredible stronghold with numbers incomparable to nearly every other place we’ve visited. Whilst those were early days, what a feeling these majestic creatures inspired in an impressionable teen and twenty-something.
Yet no place in the world compares to Hanifaru Bay in the Maldives, where you can swim with up to a hundred and fifty mantas that flit, flaunt, hover, rotate in communal feeding (a cyclone!), swim in massive single-file lines and perform stunning somersaults, better trapping their food and declaring to all around them that they are the absolute wizards of grace, awareness, and mastery of space.
In Hanifaru, you watch gluttons glide, slide through the water and feed with glee!
Reef manta rays in Hanifaru Bay, Maldives, feasting on plankton. © Prince Hussain Aga Khan
In February 2021 I took my ragtag crew of ne’er-do-wells from PM Diving on a voyage to the Revillagigedo islands along with some shark researchers and conservationists on the ship SHARKWATER.
400 and 600 kilometres from points on the Mexican coast, this incredible Marine Protected Area created seven years ago is known, among other things, for its famously friendly mantas. Mainly at a site called The Boiler in San Benedicto, these oceanic mantas, capable of growing to 7 metres but averaging 5.5 [reef mantas are smaller at 4.5 metres], frequently play with divers, hovering above them to get a belly tickle from their bubbles or accompanying them for short swims. Curious as ever, your guides will tell you not to chase after the big fish since they invariably approach the group themselves and dedicate time and attention to individuals. Frequently escorted or followed by jacks, the mantas here have friends found nowhere else on Earth – the exquisite and unique Clarion angelfish, named after one of the 4 islands, that clean them of parasites and dead skin. The most expensive aquarium fish in the world in my teens, the Clarion angels behave just like cleaner wrasse or barber fish as they take wonderful care of their gigantic clients, hovering over their backs, gently nibbling their skin, pecking at their gills and providing them the best spa experience.
A curious oceanic manta ray in the Revillagigedo islands. © Prince Hussain Aga Khan
Isla De La Plata, close to Puerto Lopez – a small fairly undeveloped fishing town in Ecuador, is a rocky island white from guano, in the middle of nowhere, and a phenomenal place to dive. Shallow and – in terms of diversity and habitat – non-descript, it is full of cleaning stations, the tiny site visited by many mantas at a time. The Ecuadorian coast is purportedly the location of the greatest manta aggregation in the world, with up to ten thousand rays counted yearly and approximately two thousand of those identified as repeat visitors during the summer season.
In this part of the ocean, five different species of fish have been known to clean the mantas! This includes barber fish of course; but also Cortez angelfish and the refulgent king angelfish, adorned with beautiful colours and a surprising pattern, that swoop down over the backs of the rays in squadrons as they come to clean.
Angelfish clean the back of an oceanic manta ray at Isla De La Plata, Ecuador. © Prince Hussain Aga Khan
In September 2021, a friend and I spent 3 days at Isla De La Plata. But one afternoon stood out as undeniably mind-boggling and utterly exceptional.
Only two rays were present that dive.
One was diffident and distant, uninterested. It was naked so-to-speak, bereft of remoras, neglected.
The other, which became a fast and firm friend, was affable, extraordinary in its curiosity and entirely unafraid. With two massive grey remoras, one on either side of its tail, dangling daringly off its backside, this creature was legendary! We took to each other instantly, flying off together for an unforgettable journey. For twenty minutes or more we communed, communicating and playing together, getting to know each other’s style and vibe. This extraordinary, unusually playful animal actually showed off for me, flipping over vertically to show me its beautiful, spotted belly once, twice, then over and over again, the interval getting shorter every time. And each time it rotated, its wing folding toward its belly in the rarest, most fantastic position, it came a little closer. By the time we were bosom buddies and I’d grown accustomed to spending minutes at a time with this manta, the other one had warmed to me and it, too, started playing – like a curious child or an enthusiastic teen taking an adventure. At the end of the dive as I swam back to the boat, my tank empty, the more active manta accompanied me, inverted and directly below me! Its face less than 2 metres from mine and mimicking my speed and direction, this amazing animal’s eyes were locking with mine. We might as well have been having a conversation!
After we parted, the mantas presumably returned to cleaning stations, where barber fish fall away from them like golden nuggets once they’ve cleaned.
Special moments with a playful oceanic manta ray at Isla De La Plata, Ecuador. © Prince Hussain Aga Khan
In Bora Bora the spotted eagle rays are at To’opua and the mantas at a site called Anau.
Most of the time you’ll see a single beautiful ray or a duo, and they’ll approach you, swimming right overhead – above the sandy bottom. But sometimes they’re over the reef, exploring. If you’re lucky you might see a wondrous fever of three or more animals swimming in a line or rotating and revolving around each other magnificently.
Here again, after I cautiously accosted a regal, energetic ray, but one that was moving extra slowly, it was as if I were accepted as one of its own by a magical fish! Manta magic at hand (and flipper).
An energetic reef manta ray swoops in for a closer look, Bora Bora. © Prince Hussain Aga Khan
And as did the rays in Mexico and Ecuador, this elasmobranch took me for an aquatic walk in its garden, a private visit of its dominion. Never more than 4 metres away, the ray had me on its wingtip for minutes, flying over coral, swimming at a fair speed, cruising through schools of fish, over anemones and the clownfish that populate them, at times above a sandy desert… For a long swim that seemed to last a short moment we watched each other, swam eye-to-eye, I admired its mobility and grace, and the ray tolerated me absolutely. Our short dalliance ended when we stumbled onto a fever of spotted eagle rays – a first that, during this specific inebriating instant, seemed completely natural, possibly even expected!
What more could one ask for?
And now, all that remains is the wait. The anticipation of seeing more manta rays, oceanic or reef, somewhere in the world.’
PRINCE HUSSAIN AGA KHAN
Founder - Focused on Nature