Today two MantaWatch teams went into the field. Evi, Ayu and I joined Divine Diving, while Dita, Niomi and Gerald jumped onboard with Wicked Diving. Our mission today was to survey some of the northern areas of Komodo National Park looking for mantas.
Our first stop was Castle Rock. This site usually experiences strong currents which bring abundant fish life. Today, however, the water was still, but that did not deter the marine life.
Making the most of the calm water, we left the shelter of the rocky pinnacle and swam out into the blue. There, clouds of yellow fusiliers and dusky surgeonfish where being bullied by giant trevallies and large dogtooth tuna, while sharks cruised up and down.
We recorded two grey and four whitetip reef sharks, before heading back to the pinnacle. There we found three Napoleon wrasse.
Next stop was the nearby Crystal Rock. Again the currents were calm, giving us the chance to venture further west than usual, to a rubble seamount where I’d recorded lots of sharks last year. And today did not disappoint, with four whitetip reef sharks sleeping on the seafloor, and four Napoleon wrasse swimming nearby.
Finally, to the Cauldron, where we’ve been recording a surprisingly high number of mantas recently. Before the dive Evi and Ayu gave a manta briefing.
Ayu gives a manta briefing
Almost as soon as we’d descended we found a whitetip, followed soon after by a blacktip and then two more whitetips inside the cauldron. Then suddenly a shadow passed overhead. I looked up, wondering if a manta had just swam by. But overhead was a fever of 14 cow nose rays. Am amazing sight, and I’d never seen an aggregation as large as this before.
14 cownose rays pass overhead
But the excitement was not over yet. As we drifted out of the cauldron and followed the reef to the east, a single manta was feeding in the shallows, and approached closely so that we could take a photo ID.
Photo ID in The Cauldron
After a full day in the field, we headed for home to compare notes with the other team. A lot of ray, shark and Napoleon wrasse sightings today, and good information to support the development of West Manggarai and Komodo shark and manta sanctuary.
