Monday, November 18- The Manta Rays

This morning’s snorkel trip was improved for many reasons.  First, I asked to check out a diving mask that had +1 diopter lenses. They made a huge difference in what I could see.  The parrot fish, in particular, were a pretty blue-green blur yesterday.  Today I could see all the variations in the colors on their bodies.  I also saw the distinctive stripes on a school of convict fish.  I had talked to one of the guides about how to take better pictures underwater; he noted the need to stay still till the fish come closer and try to get them when they weren’t moving.  Finally, I got out of the water a bit earlier than everyone else, toweled off immediately and then put on a lightweight jacket.  I warmed up very quickly.  What a relief- I’d hoped that I wouldn’t have to choose between getting hypothermia every time I went out and skipping snorkeling completely.

Three raccoon butterflyfish and one fourspot butterflyfish

Trumpet fish (at top)

Ornate butterflyfish

 

Yellow trumpet fish at center

Before lunch we had a brief presentation on Captain Cook.  He died during a skirmish in only 4 feet of water; he couldn’t swim.  It was a superstition in the Royal Navy that if your captain couldn’t swim he was more likely to be motivated to keep the ship out of danger.

After lunch our own captain told us about tonight’s passage through the Alenuihaha Channel.  Waves of up to 6 feet were expected through the night.  He reassured us that this was “a piece of cake” for the ship and the crew, but advised Dramamine if we might get seasick and reminded us to stow small electronics or anything else valuable that might fall off shelves.

During a light early dinner we had a presentation from an expert on manta rays.  From there we got into wet suits and headed out in skiffs to a site where we’d be swimming with manta rays.  

I like wet suits- they're so slimming!

They put lights in the water, which attract plankton, and the manta rays come for the plankton.  They’d emphasized that manta rays have small mouths, no teeth and they eat plankton, not humans.  

This is the closest I could get to a picture of a manta ray.  

The process was a bit uncomfortable- you had to hang onto a surfboard and look down (with mask and snorkel), trying to keep your legs straight out so you don’t hit the manta rays.  I ended up needing a “noodle” because I couldn’t keep my legs flat out no matter how hard I arched my back  They told me I didn’t have enough padding!   The guy next to me was going nuts with his Go Pro and some of the early pictures I COULD have taken would have mostly featured his rear end.  Fortunately, later in the evening the manta rays came up from the bottom and started swooping around us, under us, going in continuous ferris-wheel type loops (to scoop up plankton).  A few bumped us, they were that close.  They were generally about 12 feet across; it was spectacular.  I got only a few pictures because I kept clinging to the board, and the pictures weren’t that great, but I didn’t care!