Are Manta Rays Dangerous? Exploring Kona’s Wildlife Safely

Exploring wildlife has fascinated millennials around the world for a long time and today a lot of people are interested in visiting places that provide them an opportunity to explore wildlife especially places like Kona in Hawaii is crowded throughout the year for its rich marine life.

The waters around Kona are very famous for Manta Rays and people love to go snorkeling with these magnificent creatures. Here in this article, we will discuss certain tips that will help you in exploring Kona’s wildlife safely.

• Packing & Safety
• Daytime Or Night-Time Snorkeling
• Don’t Touch Them
• Snorkeling or Diving

Packing & Safety

When you are going for a wildlife tour and that too to see Manta Rays, then it is obvious that you would either be diving or snorkeling to see the Manta Rays. Now, when you are going for a diving or snorkeling tour, then you need to pack wisely for the tour.

That is why carrying waterproof clothes for the tour is important and even some experts opine that you must carry a waterproof bag. A lot of time you have to get in and out of the boat and carrying a waterproof bag is going to be handy because it is going to keep your valuables safe & prevent them from getting wet.

While people might get apprehensive because of the sheer size of the Manta Rays, these creatures are considered one of the most benign creatures that feed on plankton. That is why going on a snorkeling or diving tour with Manta Rays is considered very safe.

Daytime or Night-Time Snorkeling

Most of the time people are confused regarding when they should go for a snorkeling or diving tour that is considered best for spotting Manta Rays. That is whether it should be daytime or night-time. Well, as the opinion is fairly divided, there are many tour operators in Kona who offer nighttime Manta Rays snorkeling tours.

This is because during night time it is quite easy to attract Manta Rays near your boat. The plankton is attracted to artificial lights and tour operators carry powerful lights with them to get those plankton near to their boat. Now, when these plankton are attracted to your boat, the Manta Rays in turn follow them and this increases your chances of encountering these beautiful creatures.

However, going for Manta Ray spotting during the daytime might disappoint you to a large extent because during the daytime you will be able to spot Manta Rays but from a distance.

Don’t Touch Them

Often it is observed that people in the excitement of drawing the Manta Rays close to them try to touch them and often feed them food that they carry with them on the tour. Well, these are strictly prohibited because Manta Rays are protected creatures and there are various laws and regulations that prohibit feeding and touching them.

There are ample instances where marine animals including Manta Rays have suffered immensely due to coming in contact with humans and eating the foreign things thrown at them.

Besides that, giving the Manta Rays their own space is also required because it is their natural habitat that we are invading and we as humans need to strictly abide by the rules rather than making these gentle creatures feel insecure.

Snorkeling or Diving

Often people face a lot of confusion when it comes to choosing between snorkeling and diving to observe the Manta Rays. Well, both of them have got their own merits and they need to be compared individually to give you the desired results.

First of all, you need to understand that snorkeling is going to keep you above the water surface with limited ability to dive under while diving is completely going under the water to designated depths as per your ability & the instructions of the guide.

In addition to that, snorkeling can be done by everyone including children, however, the same doesn’t hold true for diving because it requires a lot of skills and expertise to successfully perform a dive. Now, when it comes to observing the Manta Rays, snorkeling will let you observe them from above while they swim beneath you.

But when you dive underwater, well, you can swim with them or go to the ocean floor and see them swim above you enjoying their plankton.

Finally

The above-discussed details about the magnificent Manta Rays are surely going to increase your curiosity about them. You should get in touch with a tour operator to book your Manta Rays tour as soon as possible because as these destinations see huge footfall throughout the year getting suitable dates for your tour might be hectic & also booking early will help you avoid the last-minute rush.