Giant manta rays gather nightly at a spot on the Kona Coast, near the airport, in Ho‘ona Bay or Garden Eel Bay. Over 60 giant manta rays are said to be living off the coast of Kona and on crowded nights 20 or more may show up. It is an awesome, overwhelming, and unforgettable experience to snorkel next to these giant creatures.
This is a description of our night snorkeling adventure with Manta Rays in Kona.
We arrived at the Kona harbor. There is plenty of parking and bathrooms in at the harbor. In our case, the boat was in the parking lot and not yet launched which surprised us a little since it was a fairly big boat. We signed our release forms (which released them from most everything) in the parking lot and then got on board once they launched the boat.
Tour boats from Kona Harbor leave for Ho‘ona Bay in the early evening to be there in time to prepare for the dark. There was no meal served on our boat, just licorice. Other tours have meals and additional touring as a part of the package.
After leaving Kona harbor, the darkness settled in quickly. We arrived in the Ho‘ona Bay and 5 or so boats were already there.
Our tour provides snorkeling and scuba equipment or you could bring your own. A guide explained the rules about not touching or disturbing the Manta Rays. They can't guarentee that the Manta Rays will show up. We were lucky and a huge number showed up.
We could see a circle of bright blue where the water was illuminated by lights at the bottom of the bay. The tour operators had put the lights there to attract marine zooplankton which in turn attract the Manta Rays. We were to swim out to the circle from the boat. The white lights are other tour boats.
Snorkelers were given wet suits and a colored identification light to attach to their snorkel mask; each tour boat uses a different color. Our color was blue. You can bring your own snorkel gear or use theirs.
Our snorkel tour boat had thrown in two styrofoam rings that we could hold on to while watching the fish and manta rays below. Each ring could support about 10 people; our tour boat was the only one with rings. So we got off the boat and swam out to the rings.
Holding on to the rings we could see the lights below us. The lights had already drawn in thousands of fish to feed on the zooplankton.
Scuba divers were led to the bottom next to the lights to see from below. The snorkelers stayed on the top to look down. This gives the giant manta rays room to swim and feed.We were also offered a hand held bright white light to draw plankton nearby and bring the manta rays closer. The light must be held very steady to attract the plankton which was fairly easy to do by holding it onto the stable ring.
The plankton drew in the giant Manta Rays to feed on the plankton by opening their huge mouths to suck it in. They swim directly at the light . Floating on the top, the manta ray can feed below you without touching you.
In my case snorkelers from other tour boats crowded around me when the Manta Rays arrived after holding the light steady for a minute or so. The crowd of snorkelers trying to view the rays close up pushed me down so that the manta ray knocked into me when trying to eat the plankton. It was a jarring clonk to be whacked by a fish with the volume of a VW bug.
Here are some videos of the adventure.
In this video you can see how close the Manta Rays come and the zooplankton they are feeding on. In the background are the screams from the snorkeling holding on to the ring. And the klunk is when the Manta Ray hit me.
In this video you can see the snorkelers above the Manta Rays. Each boat tour has a different color. Our color was blue. You can get an idea of what it is like being in the dark in the open ocean.
Some things to consider:
The wet suit kept us warm, but some people got overly cold and had to go back to the boat early.
The experience can wear you out. Being in the open ocean at night can be intimidating. The snorkel spot is a distance from the boat, so you have to swim out and then back. Fortunately, our tour was the first to leave, but other tours stay for a long time.
We don't recommend this outing for small children. Some parents were forced to take their frightened children back to the boats. Even some of the adults were overcome with fear as the huge Manta Rays approached them at high speed with their mouths wide open. Teens seemed to love it, though most of the time high pitched screaming deafened the night from the young and old.
There are many Kona tour companies that will take you on night manta dive or snorkel trips. Make reservations early since many of the operators are fully scheduled and tours are not available every night.
