The Magic Of Manta Rays

Hello Again!

Joy here!

Summer is back in Costa Rica and as sad as we are to watch the whales head back to their winter home, we are glad to see the return of our manta ray friends.

The shallow nutrient-rich waters of Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast attracts all sorts of marine life but personally, manta rays are my favourite.

Yes, orcas and humpbacks are majestic and awe-inspiring. Dolphins are a joy to watch with their sleek bodies and sychronized acrobatics...but mantas are just plain fun.

The first time we saw the manta rays frantically jumping we were flabbergasted. What on earth could make these creatures hurl themselves out of the water so recklessly that they flip end over end before hitting the water once more with a huge splash??

We immediately went online and started doing searches.

The first answer we found was that scientists have no idea. Okay, thats wrong...they have several theories but they have no proof to substantiate any of the theories.

One theory is that they are chasing food, rushing the schools of bait fish from below. Another is that they themselves are breaching in order to escape predators, or in order to remove parasites from their bodies.

Another theory is that it is part of the mating dance, but marine biologists think that mating is stimulated by a full moon and we see mantas jumping daily during the December to April season. So much for that theory.

The last theory, and my personal favourite is that they are playing. Why not, right? Whales do it. Dolphins do it. Why not mantas?

Whatever the reason for their behvior, it’s great fun to watch.

Most of the time the mantas do a straight vertical breach, as I described before, flipping around with what appears to be no control whatsoever until gravity returns them to the ocean.

 Sometimes however, you get one ambitious fella who seems to think he could fly if he just flapped his wings fast enough. It’s great fun to see one hover momentarily above the waves, wings gracefully flapping up and down like a strange flattened bird, until he belly-flops with a splash. I haven’t been able to catch this particular phenomenon on camera yet, so I had to turn to the internet for help…

Thanks to BlogSpot.com for this one!

from blogspot.com

 The main difference between trying to catch whales and dolphins on camera, and trying to catch manta rays on camera is that while the whales and dolphins tend to swim mostly in a straight line, breaching periodically....mantas just pop up willy-nilly, so randomly and so quickly that trying to get a proper photo of them can be quite difficult.

A few of our tour guests have managed, through sheer determination and a willingness to sit completely still with their camera up and their finger on the trigger (so-to-speak), waiting patiently for a manta to jump up within the frame of their lens.

One such miracle worker was Barb.

Here she is, poised and ready...

And here are some of the wonderful photos she took...

She actually had a few photogenic fellos who seemed determined to be caught on camera, popping up quite close to the boat several times in a row, wings outspread as if to say “Look at me! Look at me!”

Quite often we consider a tour to be extra-special if we get a glimpse of the whales or the dolphins...but a tour just isn’t a tour if we don’t get to see at least one jumping manta....because we know our guests are going to leave with a smile on their faces and a new respect for a beautiful, playful...down-right goofy creature... and maybe these beautiful creatures will have so many people fall madly in love with them and their antics...that they will no longer be listed as an endanger species.

Toodles for now and Pura Vida!