Snorkelling with manta rays in the Yasawa Islands of Fiji (with video)

Looking at the names of some of the resorts in Fiji’s Yasawa Islands – Barefoot Manta and Manta Island Resort – you can’t help but think there might be manta rays in the area… And from May to October, you’d be absolutely right! 🙂

For six months of the year, reef mantas grace the islands with their presence and if you stay at one of these resorts you can be lucky enough to swim with them. We stayed at Barefoot Manta resort, which, as well as being paradise, faces a channel that runs between two islands. And this 10 metre deep channel is a feeding channel for manta rays! At high tide the Barefoot staff head out to the channel to check for the rays, and if they spot them the alarm is sounded for you to grab your snorkel and fins and head to the boats!

The current in the channel is surprisingly strong, so you have to get into a routine of hopping off the boat, gliding down the channel, and then hopping back on the boat for it to take you back up to the top of the channel. Then it all starts again! The current, however, is nothing to the mantas. While you’re drifting downstream they loom effortlessly towards you and gracefully ‘fly’ past and back into the blue. The first time we spotted one was literally a jaw dropping moment! They are so majestic and with a wing span of three to four metres, pretty massive!

The experience didn’t last very long before the mantas returned to the deep, but spending even five seconds in the presence of these beautiful animals was incredible. To do it, it’ll set you back about 70FJD.

The only slightly negative thing about the experience was that other resorts were doing the same thing, but without the deep respect for the animals that the amazing staff at Barefoot had. Instead of letting the manta glide past them, they chased after it in a mob of about 20 people. Our guide explained to us that all this splashing scares the manta out of the channel, meaning they don’t feed and your experience of seeing them is cut short. Don’t let this put you off, though – Barefoot and Awesome Adventures are working to make sure everyone is educated on the mantas and what can upset them. Just keep it in mind if you go on the trip and do your bit to help to look after the peace of mind of these amazing creatures by letting them pass you by and hopping back on the boat to see them again. Being out of the water might feel like you’re wasting precious manta time, but seeing them from the front is much more exciting than from the back anyway 🙂