Photo of the Week: April Week 2009 2

Hi gang! I am not sure that I can tell you all of the reasons that as divers we fall head over heels in love with manta rays, but there is no doubt that we do. Manta rays are graceful, big, majestic and magical, and an opportunity to photograph one is always special. While manta rays (Manta birostris) are known to inhabit tropical and sub-tropical waters around the world, there are a few places where sightings are so common that they can almost be guaranteed. Of course, as soon as you think that any wildlife encounter is guaranteed, you are just setting yourself up for disappointment.

     That said, if I had my heart set on diving with a manta ray I'd go to Mexico's Revillagigedos Islands (aka Socorros) on a liveaboard trip, Yap, the Big Island of Hawaii, or I'd go diving with Captain Steve in his backyard in Maui at a site named Ukumehame. The site is a known cleaning station where a variety of smaller fishes help clean the skin of the rays and rid them of annoying ectoparasites. Fortunately for us, the mantas are regularly encountered there, and the sightings often occur over reefs that are just a few feet below the surface. For underwater photographers this often means we have clear Hawaiian water and plenty of ambient light to work with.

     When diving with manta rays, whether just watching in awe or creating images, there are a few points of diving etiquette to keep in mind. The first is that while it can be tempting to reach out and touch a ray, you can inadvertently cause the animal harm by removing the protective mucus coating over its skin where you make contact with the ray. The solution to this potential problem is easy. Don't touch. The second thing that I try not to do is to exhale a blast of air from directly underneath the animal, especially when I first get close to a manta. After mantas get comfortable with your presence I think there are times they find the air bubbles to be pleasurable, but in my experience a sudden blast at the onset of an encounter can cause mantas to flee. Lastly, I try not to block the ray's swimming path. If I do find myself directly in front of an oncoming ray, I stop. By doing so I give the ray the opportunity to turn, ascend or descend without feeling threatened, and that is exactly what I did when I created this week's POTW. I stopped and gave the ray plenty of room between the surface and me. Prior to my last manta ray dive with Captain Steve I already had a reasonably good collection of manta ray images, but one picture I was lacking was a "mouth-open down the throat" shot in the daytime when an animal was getting cleaned. I did have some good night times "down the throat while feeding" images taken at the Big Island manta ray night dive, but those images were taken when the mantas were feeding on plankton. I wanted a similar daytime shot with a ray at a cleaning station.

     For this week's POTW I positioned myself near a group of active cleaners and waited for an approaching manta. Rather than swimming toward the ray when it approached the cleaners, I held my position to allow the cleaning activity to get going and the ray to get comfortable with my presence. The manta made several passes, and on the first few instead of trying to force the situation, I remained still. On the third or forth pass, the ray opened its mouth and swam toward me. I had pulled my strobes down so they were level with my housing in the hopes that I could light the inside of the animal's mouth and make myself less threatening by giving the ray plenty of room to swim over me. As the ray got closer it swam slightly upward and I had just the frame I was hoping to get. I got the mouth agape pose with a cleaner wrasse swimming inside of the ray's mouth.

     I used a Nikon 17 mm to 55 mm zoom with the lens set at 55 mm. In a perfect world I'd use a very wide angle lens and get as close as possible to the ray so I would be shooting through as little water as possible. But in this case, I think that technique violates the etiquette of diving with mantas, especially when I was trying to get the "down the throat" shot. The bottom line for me was great dive, great photo opp! Thanks Captain!