It’s the second day of our manta research cruise, and we started our manta surveys this morning at 7 o’clock in Manta Alley. This is one of the best dive sites in Komodo National Park to see manta rays, and we found many. We were very lucky to find 15 reef mantas in a single dive. It was amazing! Some of the mantas were swimming and cleaning above us, in a perfect position  for us to take ID photos of the ventral markings. But most were just staying still, feeding in the strong current between rocky gullies with their mouths wide open as the current carried food directly to them. The mantas and the MantaWatchers all swam together against the strong current, but the mantas were much better at this than we were! This dive was one of the most unforgettable moments of the internship so far.
Retno meets a melanistic manta
After the first dive, we had breakfast and shared our experience underwater with each other. We decided to take another chance at this site, and to do a second dive in the same location. This time we only found 4 reef mantas. Not as many as before, but still just as exciting, and we managed to take their ID photos.
Today we also practiced giving briefings about manta rays, trying to make our briefings perfect before we deliver them to the tourists next week. We tried to give so much information in only a short briefing. Information about Komodo National Park, manta biology and ecology, conservation, and how to become a citizen scientist. Not easy, right? That’s why we need a lot of practice.
Our third dive was at a site called German Flag. Why German? This name comes from the rocky cliff behind the site, where the layers of red, yellow, and black rock look just like the German flag. The current here was stronger than at Manta Alley, and we know that mantas love strong currents. We found 13 reef mantas at this site, and more photo IDs!.
Our last dive today was at Padar Kecil. We had a small current at 11 m depth and a cool 24°C water temperature. I did not see any mantas, but it still important for us to record this zero data. Although there were no mantas, we still enjoyed the dive because we found their elasmobranch siblings, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks. We also saw a hawksbill turtle just before ascending from our dive.
As the sun went down, we visited the pink beach of Padar Island to enjoy the sunset. Lots of mantas today, and a beautiful closing for the day. Perfect!
MIP-2016 at Pink Beach
