It’s clearly the year of the manta in Komodo. In the past three years that I’ve been onboard Mermaid II we’ve had some pretty outstanding manta encounters, but nothing with the magnitude and frequency that we are having this year in Komodo. I’ve been trying to find something else to write about for this weeks trip report; stunning reefs, schooling fish, incredible macro, all of which are absolutely amazing, but I just can’t get over the sheer abundance of mantas that we had, again, this week.
The first dive in the morning at Manta Alley was bliss. 
The water was flat and warm and the majority of the dive was spent hovering just above the reef in no more than eight meters of water just watching the twenty or so mantas in that area syphon up their breakfast. Our second dive at Manta Alley was a different kind of bliss. It was clear from the drop in that they had all enjoyed a highly nutritious morning meal as they were clearly full of energy. Like a shoal of children chasing each other through the neighborhood playground, the mantas were lined up behind one another, twenty deep, pumping with their massive wings flipping and rolling through the groups of divers. At times you felt like you had to duck as the chain of excited mantas came charging over the top. The trains of mantas were so long that even with the the unusually great twenty five meter visibility at the dive site you wouldn’t be be able to see where it ended. That’s a lot of mantas.
Mermaid II Bali – Komodo – Bali Cruise
June 18 -25, 2016
By Alex Lindbloom
Videographer
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