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Manta
Ray Night Snorkel
The cost for snorkelers is $84 per person plus tax. This includes your wetsuit, snorkel gear, lights, flotation devices if needed, a swim guide in the ocean with you, beverages, and light snacks. Bring along towels, dry clothes, and a jacket or sweatshirt.
Visitors to the Kona Coast of the Big Island have an opportunity to participate in one of the most unique ocean adventures in the world! Manta rays frequent the warm waters of the rocky volcanic coastline in search of plankton, their primary food source. With their giant mouths constantly open, they glide through the water and filter these tiny creatures. There is one particular spot close to the Kona airport where mantas congregate in the early evening, and after dark they are attracted to lights that are placed on the bottom of the ocean in about 30 feet of water. These lights attract clouds of tiny plankton, and the plankton attracts the mantas. These giant rays gracefully glide, twirl, and do somersaults to swoop up the tiny little food particles, sometimes within a foot or so of the observers! You too can witness these spectacular ocean creatures in their magical underwater ballet in an event you’ll never forget!
Check in for this event is at Honokohau Harbor which is two miles north of downtown Kailua-Kona. Check in time varies with sunset throughout the year, but is in the late afternoon / early evening, and the tour is 3.5 hours in duration. This tour is done on a 40' Coast Guard certified vessel that is fast and comfortable and is well-laid out for this tour.
Manta rays are often called "the butterflies of the sea" ... they are shy, harmless, and graceful. They don’t have any stinging spines on their tail. They don’t bite or chew. Their mouths are designed like a giant funnel to filter plankton; swimming with them is completely safe for both humans and for the mantas. They truly are gentle giants; most of the mantas found along the Kona coast have a “wingspan” of 8-13 feet!
The manta ray encounters along the Kona coast began back in the early 70’s; a hotel called the “Kona Surf” had bright lights that shined into the ocean and mantas were attracted almost nightly. Scuba operators began doing night dives. While the location gave a reliable chance to see manta rays, the spot was not very protected from ocean swells and sometimes the area would be too rough to dive or snorkel.
In 1999 the Kona Surf Hotel closed and the lights were turned off. The manta rays found a new spot to congregate in a bay near the Kona airport where plankton concentrated in the late afternoon sun. This is the spot where most mantas are now going on a nightly basis, and this bay offers a much more protected location from ocean swells. This bay is inaccessible from shore, and access requires a boat ride of about 25-30 minutes from the harbor that is just north of downtown Kailua-Kona.
At first the manta encounter began as an event for scuba divers. Over time it became clear that this isn’t just for certified divers! Snorkelers can float at the top and watch the action below. The bright lights that you hold in your hand and shine downward will attract plankton, and the manta rays will swoop up from the deeper water. They often come within inches of you and do a flip as they scoop the plankton out of the water for a tasty snack.
When you first enter the water the scene looks like something out of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” with the bright lights attracting a host of tiny fish as well as the giant mantas. When two or three snorkelers get together and hold their lights close together, the mantas sometimes spend more time at the surface than at the bottom!
The wetsuit that is provided for snorkelers will do two things for you. First, it will help keep you warm since you are snorkeling after dark. Second, it will help you float. Even if you aren’t a good swimmer, you won’t have any problems floating around at the top while wearing a wetsuit.
There is no minimum age for this tour per se, but parents should use their own discretion for any children under 12. Everyone who goes out on the tour pays the same rate ... this applies to children as well as to "Ride Alongs" who watch from the boat and don't snorkel. Ride alongs aren't recommend though for this tour because there is little to see at night unless you are actually getting in the water.
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CRUISE
SHIP PASSENGERS |
The Manta Ray event is not
available for cruise ship passengers unless your cruise ship is on a rare itinerary that spends the night in Kona.
ACTIVITY
TIPS
My wife and I recently did this adventure for the first time, and we are now excited to offer it to our clients. In my opinion this is one of the most unique adventures in Hawaii and it falls at the very top of my “don’t miss it” list.
Witnessing manta rays in the wild is a rare treat that can only be done in a few places in the world. The success rate for sighting mantas is incredibly high; somewhere in the 90-95% range. The night that my wife and I did this tour there were 13 mantas, but it seemed like there were far more than that. They kept dancing and gliding from every direction the entire hour we were in the water.
While the success rates are very high, there is no way to guarantee sightings every single night. The tour operators can’t offer refunds when the mantas don’t show up; their costs for operating the tour are fixed. My advice though is to not let this discourage you; the opportunity to swim with mantas and the high success rate makes it completely worthwhile. If you sign up for this tour you have an extremely high probability of swimming with mantas. If you don’t sign up for this tour you have no chance of swimming with mantas. Sign up for the tour, then be nice to everyone and build up some positive karma in the weeks leading up to the event!
Please note that touching the mantas is not allowed. They have a protective slime coat that keeps them safe from infection and disease, and for the health of the mantas they should not be petted at all. Resist the temptation, even though they are only inches away. Divers stay on the bottom; snorkelers float at the top. All the space in between is allotted for the mantas to conduct their graceful maneauvers.
If snorkeling at night is not your thing, you might be able to see manta rays from an observation deck at the Sheraton Keauhou Resort. This is the remodeled “Kona Surf Hotel” that has reopened within the last few years and they are shining lights into the ocean once again. The majority of mantas are happy at the airport location, but one or two mantas are often seen swimming around at the Sheraton these days. Watching a manta from this deck isn’t quite the same as being in the water with them, but it’s a thrill nonetheless, and at the Sheraton you can watch them while sipping on a $12 Mai Tai! The Spirit of Kona dinner cruise boat also goes to this location in the evening, and it is sometimes possible to see mantas through their glass bottom viewing ports. See the dinner cruise page for more details.
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