At the very end of our Similan liveaboard
we had two absolutely wicked dives at Koh Bon, we saw one Manta Ray on the
first dive there and three on the second dive. The one that was there most of
the time unfortunately had a rope caught up on its cephalic fin and it seemed
very timid at first.
We were quite lucky on the first dive, there was just our dive
group close to the Koh Bon west ridge when the Manta Ray showed up, as said it
was quite timid and would not come too close to us so no good photos on this go
and it took off as soon as more people showed up.
But on the second go we decided to stay at
the west ridge for the whole dive because the good current was a promising
event! And it was worth it!!!
The Manta Ray from the first dive came back and
allowed us to get close enough to get some good pictures for the Manta Matcher
( www.mantamatcher.org ). Manta
Matcher runs research on mantas population, habits and migratory routes, so any
ID picture of the belly is worth to send them to help the research. Mantas have
unique spot marks on the belly so an individual can be identified.
We were the only group again on that side
of the ridge as it was not the easiest spot to hang around and at the end it
paid off: three Manta Rays showed up together just as we were about to head off
for our safety stop. Such a pity none of us could get a picture of them
together but we were just starting to ascent from our safe spot next to the
ridge and the current really started to swirl around at that point, so we bid
farewell to this beautiful creatures and safely head to the surface.
That was a Wicked trip!!!!!
Laura Kanerva (Divemaster!)
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