Season of The Gentle Giants

Season of The Gentle Giants

Manta season in North Male' Atoll Maldives

Every year by late June & towards the end of November a spectacular show starts early June at our very own house reef at Paradise Island Resort (manta rays Manta Birostris) start gathering. First in small numbers and then more and more until they form huge groups. Manta rays may reach a disc width up to 670 cm and there have been reported sightings of 910 cm width; specimens of 400 cm disc width or more are common. They are harmless as they have no sting or venomous spine. Manta Point Lankan is 10mins by boat the site is on our very own house reef.

Majestic Manta Ray

Cleaning Stations of dive site Lankan Manta Point

Manta rays feed on plankton (plankton is made up of microscopic plants and animals). It is the most amazing thing that something that gets so big in size feeds on the smallest micro animals that live in the ocean. The planktonic organisms are ingested through the rays wide open mouth and sieved through the gills. The gills are designed as complex filtering plates.

Manta rays on top of cleaning stations at Lankan Manta Point 

Breach out of the water 

Manta rays are capable of rapid speeds and will sometimes leap high out of the water, landing with a loud slap. Where manta rays gather there is a possibility that you might see a mating dance - several males chasing a single female each displaying its own acrobatic skills, competing with each other for the female. Females can sometimes be seen with a swollen tummy indicating pregnancy. The rays are often seen in shallow water whilst feeding on the surface.
Have a look at this breach by a manta captured during from underwater and from the surface from Sun Island Resort & Spa
Manta Season for South Ari Atoll in the Maldives is from late November till late April this would be an ideal time to visit Holiday Island or Sun Island to dive or snorkel with Manta Rays.  Below is a link from our youtube channel one of the best captured clips both underwater and also from the surface.

Feeding & Grooming

The real reason for the rays gathering around the big coral heads is that when they are traveling from Atoll to Atoll (the Manta Ray is a pelagic ocean traveler), following their food source, tiny white parasites start to feed on the skin of the rays. The big corals where the rays gather is actually a “cleaning station”, ie. the home for a number of fish that feed on parasites living on other marine life. These fish are from the Wrasse Family (Labridae) eg. the Blunthead Wrasse (Thalassoma Amblycephalum) and the Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides Dimidiatus). The rays hover above the coral heads waiting to be cleaned by the wrasses. Once they have been cleaned they glide back to the ocean leaving space for another to be groomed and so the cycle continues for a long time.

A shot from below shows the gills open during a feed

When and where to visit

During the plankton season, late June till late November Manta rays can be found in many sites around North Male' Atoll. Some of the most popular dive sites for mantas is Lankan ( Paradise Island house reef ), Furana Thila (a small channel 15mins boat ride from Paradise Island ) and Sunlight Thila (15min boat ride from Paradise Island). Visibility during these months is normally not so good. Even so, the worst visibility you can have is about 10m. We observed that at all three dive sites manta's active very close or on top of cleaning stations suggesting that the grooming is a must during the manta season in North Male' Atoll. Divers should stay well away within an invisible boundary set explained by the dive guides during briefings. It's a must that no one should touch the coral or be right on top of the cleaning stations.

Help ID Manta Rays 

Very little is known about how the rays travel from atoll to atoll, whether they use the same route every year or how far they travel. However, some rays have been seen returning to the same dive sites year after year. Every manta ray has a different marking on the belly. These black patches can be used to identify different individuals. You can submit photo's shots of Manta rays seeing during your dives in the Maldives to Manta Trust a friendlier practice then tagging manta rays.

Every Manta is a has a different set of patches these unique to each individual

The two most common breeds of rays known to be found in Maldivian waters are:
MANTA RAY ( MANTA BIROSTRIS )PYGMY DEVILRAY ( MOBULA EREGOODOOTENKEE )The name for manta ray in Dhivehi is Enn Madi Book a dive package at diveOceanus Paradise Island  Visit our facebook page for the latest updates on dives
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Mohamed Seeneen