Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A short manta ray video from the manta ray night dive in Kona Hawaii...


Manta rays eating plankton in Kona Hawaii from Steve on Vimeo.

The manta ray dive has been pretty active the last couple of weeks. Here's a short video from a slow night a few months back. If you want to see what it's like on a busy night, go to my May archives, or click on the "video" label below.

This video does a good job of showing the plankton that the mantas feed on. Plankton is a mix of small critters and larval shrimp and fish and such that is on the reef and tends to come out at night. It's attracted to light like moths. Over time the manta rays have learned that light means food, so they key on the diver's lights when they are feeding. Garden Eel Cove, off the Kona airport, is a spot that's rich in plankton and most of the dive operators here run their manta ray night dive at this location.

later,

Steve

Steve
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3 comments:

  1. RG9:11 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Steve11:25 AM

    RG said...
    Checking out Hawaiian blogs and this is a nice one. Need more pictures of Sea Horses though ;-).

    I was in Honolulu once. One of the best times of my life.

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  3. Steve11:34 AM

    Sorry to RG of Gringo Ranch for the editing of his comment... it included a link and I'm going to make a habit of not posting comments with links I don't feel are directly related to diving or the post at hand.... I'm getting a lot of "cool blog, check out my blog www.blahblahblah" posts and I'm trying to nip it in the bud.

    Anyway, thanks for the nice comment RG. On seahorses... if we had them I'd post pictures. Apparently there are some rarely seen onshore seahorses on Oahu, but the only thing we have in most of the state is a pelagic (open ocean) species. About the only way you'll see them is if you troll yourself behind a boat a few miles out to sea at night.

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