However, I’d strongly encourage you to do research and come to your own conclusions. On the other hand, the popularity of manta ray tours obviously expose these animals to more humans than they’d otherwise interact with, which can lead to injury for the mantas (especially with negligent tour operators) as well as unnatural feeding habits.Īfter researching manta rays’ feeding habits (i.e., they naturally frequently feed at night and can eat up to 20 hours per day) and a variety of tour operators, I felt comfortable booking a tour with Sea Paradise. For example, conservation efforts have dramatically increased to protect these threatened creatures against poaching, due, in significant part, to the awareness that the manta ray tourism industry, valued at $140 million per year, has created.
Manta ray tours (and really, any kind of activity that involves an animal in the wild) has positive and negative impacts on the animals. Not all tour operators offer this perk so if you book with someone else, be sure to read the fine print! Are manta ray tours ethical?Īny tour that includes some sort of animal interaction should raise red flags with you- are the animals being held in captivity? Is more harm coming out of the activity than good? If so, you should absolutely not be supporting it, with either your time or your money. Accordingly, it’s a good idea to book your tour towards the beginning of your trip so you’ll have time to reschedule if the need arises. Sea Paradise guarantees that you’ll see manta rays on your tour, meaning that if you happen to fall in the 5% of tours that are sans mantas, you can rebook at a later date (how cool is that!). What if I don’t see manta rays on the tour? Motorized boats are prohibited from entering the private property, so there’s no tours that come here. Manta Point is located north of Kona in Kauna’oa Bay, by the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. Tours here have a slightly lower sighting rate than those that go to Manta Ray Village, but generally report seeing more mantas at one time. This site tends to be more popular with manta ray dive tours (where you scuba dive to the seafloor and observe the manta rays swooping overhead), but there’s also a few night snorkel tours that come here as well. Manta Ray Heaven is north of Kona by Keahole Point, the most western tip of the island, and offshore of Kona International Airport. Out of all the manta ray feeding spots in Kona, you’ll have the best chance of seeing mantas here- tours reportedly see an average of four manta rays per tour, with a manta ray sighting rate of 95%! It’s located directly in front of the Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay, which is to the south of Kona. Manta Ray Village is the original manta ray snorkeling spot in Kona and the most popular location for tours.
In Kona, manta rays typically hang out in three spots:
Manta rays are habitual creatures and typically feed in the same spots every day. After about 45 minutes or so in the water, you’ll head back to the boat and sail back to shore. The feeding manta rays will then swoop and somersault through the water beneath you, sometimes just inches from your face, as they have their nightly feast. When my husband, Justin, and I went on our manta ray snorkeling tour, the guides gave us pool noodles to loop beneath our ankles so that they’d float near the surface while we were hanging on to the raft.
#Manta ray night snorkel skin#
If humans (or anything else solid, like a flipper) touches the manta rays, it rubs off this protective coating, which can cause lesions on their skin or otherwise harm them.Īccordingly, to protect the manta rays during the tour, you will not be wearing flippers and will have limited movement in your legs to ensure the mantas aren’t kicked. The manta rays have a protective coat of mucus, which largely functions as their immune system, on their skin. It’s probably not a great idea to have a bunch of tourists freely swimming around in the middle of the ocean at night.
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