The island Born in the Andaman Sea northwards the island group Similan is famous for the present of many Manta rays. Under perfect conditions its nearly sure that you'll have a meeting with this big beautiful animals which make an fascinating experience.
The Manta Rays love the cold water currents which mostly have in the morning and during particularly seasons. For divers strong currents diving makes difficult and the cold water some times pulls them into the deep water.
When you meet Mantas it seems that the animals have much fun to swim and play with us divers because they come and go and turn around us, like to be touched and caressing the surface which it feels like the thin hairy skin of a young cow. Also during our security stop for 5 minutes in the depth of six Meters the Mantas still turn around us and give us their "performance". But our strict principle and rule is never to ride on a Manta, this is a bad habit of many our diving collegues.
For me it wasn't the first time meeting Mantas by Koh Born, but surely it was the most beautiful and exciting tour.
Please don't mind the poor quality of my UW-photos made under dark conditions and without any "lightshow" (flash light). My UW-camera is a Fuji F31fd with a simple housing, so chromatic noise and some blur captures are posted too. If you like to see the professional UW-pictures, the books from the master Helmut Debelius are superb, but his UW-equipment is a bit more expensive too!
Here some description about the Manta rays:
The manta ray (Manta birostris), is the largest of the rays, with the largest known specimen having been more than 7.6 m(!!!) across, with a weight of about 2,300 kg. It ranges throughout tropical waters of the world, typically around coral reefs.
Mantas have been given a variety of common names, including Atlantic manta, Pacific manta, devilfish, and just manta. Recent studies have discovered that what is called manta ray are at least two different species, one smaller local and one much larger and migratory.
Mantas are filter feeders: they feed on plankton, fish larvae and the like, passively filtered from the water passing through their gills as they swim. Small prey organisms are caught on flat horizontal plates of russet-coloured spongy tissue spanning spaces between the manta's gill bars.
Mantas frequent reef-side cleaning stations where small fish such as wrasses and angelfish swim in the manta's gills and over its skin to feed, in the process cleaning it of parasites and removing dead skin.
The predators of the Manta ray are mainly large sharks, however in some circumstances orcas have also been observed preying on them.
Mantas are extremely curious around humans, and are fond of swimming with scuba divers. Although they may approach humans, if touched, their mucus membrane is removed, causing lesions and infections on their skin. They often surface to investigate boats without engines running. They have the largest brain-to-body ratio of the sharks and rays.
Mantas are known to breach the water into the air.
The island Born in the Andaman Sea northwards the island group Similan is famous for the present of many Manta rays. Under perfect conditions its nearly sure that you'll have a meeting with this big beautiful animals which make an fascinating experience.
The Manta Rays love the cold water currents which mostly have in the morning and during particularly seasons. For divers strong currents diving m…
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This boat called "Sai Mai" is very liked and known for the save tours, brave, trained and friendly boat crew and its (my opinion) three star comfort. I already went out for 8 times for dive tours and had three tours to Burma torward the Mergui Archipelago (Myanmar). NITROX filling service is new on board.
NITROX is an english abbreviation and it means like enriched air of 32-34 % OXygen and the rest NITRogen. The normal breathable air contains 21 % oxygen on the surface of the ocean, One of the benefit of NITROX diving is having more time for remaining in the depth without becoming the big decompression handicap.
At the depth of 20 Meters the first view was a swarm of Butterflyfish searching food between the corals and rocks. A look to the top, soon we saw the first silhouette of the first Manta overflying us.
A gigantic devilray with gracefully sculpted, falcate pectoral 'wings', paddle-like cephalic lobes projecting forward from the front of the head (actually extensions of the pectoral fins, supported by radial cartilages), and a very broad, rectangular mouth at the end of the head (a mouth type known as 'terminal'), pebble-like teeth in the lower jaw but not the upper.
Manta rays are the largest rays and are closely related to sharks. These harmless rays have a short tail and no stinging spine. They are very acrobatic; they can even leap from the water.
Divers sometimes see Manta Rays swimming gracefully through the water feeding on plankton. The planktonic organisms are filtered from the water by the gills. Despite most individuals being seen swimming slowly, the Manta Ray is capable of swimming at rapid speed. They are sometimes observed leaping out of the water and landing back on the surface with a loud slap.
I was told that I should swim always beside the Manta animal, never underneath it, due the air bubbles which the Mantas don't like so much.
In this case it absolute was different, because this Manta liked the bubbles very much and swam permanent over me. Once it let fall down some naturals on my body which was much much more than the shit from a bird from the sky.
Not a Manta ray but my friend shot this photo with my UW camera.
There is a strict warning from the Bundesgesundheitsministerium Deutschland:
Der Bundesgesundheitsminister warnt:
TAUCHEN MACHT SÜCHTIG!
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