Manta Ray Night Swim
What is this MAGIC? You will ask after a MANTA NIGHT SWIM.
Kona has a unique wonderfully majestic underwater ballet performance by the gentlest giants of the sea. This extremely special experience is unique to Kona considered ‘One of the top ten things to do in your lifetime’ by Travel Magazine. Please enjoy this Plankton eating, Dance party display in the water with MANTA RAYS for a night swim experience you will never forget.
This can be a dangerous adventure if you are unqualified or unprepared. Safety is first. Please respect all Boats and Lifeguards in the water.
Manta rays are home in the Ocean. We are guests. Please research manta rays at www.MantaPacific.org and fall in love with these amazing animals before seeing them in the wild. Manta Rays are WONDERFUL and deserve to be protected and respected. We have a responsibility to DO NO HARM as they are not capable of hurting us with no teeth, no stinger, no barb, and no apparent ill will. Manta rays are nobody’s predator and nobody’s prey. They exist with the peaceful essence we want for the whole world. Please emulate them with a quiet and gentle home while you visit.
MANTA NIGHT SWIM AGREEMENTS: PLEASE SIGN ALL!!!
____ I agree to never touch, chase, or harm a Manta Rays.
_____I agree to visit www.MantaPacific.org before our swim.
_____I agree to Love and protect all Manta Rays forever!
FUN FACTS ABOUT MANTA RAYS IN KONA:
HISTORY of the Manta Ray Tours:
About 30 years ago the restaurant outside the Sheraton Hotel put lights in the water for guest ambiance and Manta Rays were quickly attracted. Soon locals were throwing you in a floaty with a flashlight, and the Kona Manta Ray Tours began. Now we have 30 plus boats in the waters around Kona touring Manta Ray Observation Snorkeling experiences in two different locations. When the boats introduced boards with lights for observation, the Manta Rays developed a new behavior. They started barreling under the boards to collect the plankton attracted by our lights. There are Manta Rays all over the world, but the barrel roll is a learned behavior at one time unique only to Kona Manta Rays, further proving high levels of cognitive activity. Kona Manta Rays are very special.
TERRITORY:
Our Inner-coastal Manta Rays are known to live between the areas of Captain Cook and Waikoloa, safely roaming our Golden Kona Coast. They don’t travel to other islands. Www.MantaPacific.org is our favorite resource where almost 300 of our Kona Manta Rays have been identified and named. When filming, try to get a picture of the manta’s belly. If it hasn’t been identified yet…. You get to name a Manta Ray! Pretty cool! Just ask DarthRaydar.
Behavior:
Manta Rays have the largest BRAINS of all fish being the first fish thought to be able to recognize itself. Studies of the manta ray brain suggest manta rays are fish in the shark family with well-developed sensory cognitive abilities and strong social behaviors.
Manta Rays EAT plankton exclusively, and they are strictly a filter feeder eating Phytoplankton (microscopic, photosynthetic plankton) and Zoa Plankton (larger plankton, often the larval forms of animals like crabs and sea stars). They graze 75% of their lives and eat 25% of their body weight daily. Their mouths could swallow you whole, but their throat is the size of a quarter and would never get you down. Mantas have No teeth, no stinger, no barb- the Manta Ray literally cannot hurt you. You are SAFE! Manta Rays also have No natural predators. The Manta Ray is also safe, except from the dangers of us.
COLOR:
Manta ray backs or Dorsal sides are typically black and grey. Their bellies or ventral sides are white with spots that serve as UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS much like the human thumbprint.
SIZE:
7-10’ is the average wingspan, weighing 100 pounds per foot. Our biggest documented Manta Ray here is Kona is Biggest Bertha with a 16’ wingspan.
BIRTH CYCLE:
When a female manta ray is ready to mate she will do what we call a Manta Train. She will perform a type of dance. Several males will follow her trying to copy her perfectly. The one who wins her over will be the one She chooses to mate with. She will have a live birth after a 13 months gestation period. She will fly out of the water and smack her belly down on the water surface to break the live egg sack and a baby manta burrito will drop, and unwrap itself, and fly away. It’s Bye-bye Baby Baby right then and there. Mantas generally only have one offspring at a time and only every couple of years.
MANTA in Spanish means Blanket.
