Snorkelling with a Manta Ray!

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have one of those moments that will stay with us forever!

Upon surfacing from a dive at stonehenge, Nu, our captain, told us he’d seen a Manta ray around the dive site while we were diving. Of course we were excited, but Nu thought it had left already. As we were removing our equipment we spotted something large just below the surface moving towards the boat. At first we couldn’t believe it but this soon changed as we grabbed our fins and snorkels to swim with the graceful giant!

As we’d all just been diving we were not able to duck dive down but thankfully the huge ray decided to come up to the surface and glide around just a meter or 2 beneath us. The Manta was about 3m from wing tip to wing tip and was accompanied by some small cobia and several remoras. After a few minutes of circling the ray departed leaving us all feeling ecstatic and priviledged to have shared such a moment.

Manta rays – Manta birostris are the worlds largest elasmobranch and are found in warm temperate waters worldwide.