Bonaire Manta Ray sighting

[vann evans]

Today was one of those "once in a lifetime"events for us. We were exploring the shallows of Front Porch when I looked north and saw what I thought was an eagle ray approaching. As it got closer,I thought that it looked unusually large. Then, I almost passed out from excitement!!It had two unmistakeably large and prominent protrusions on the front, no spots, body about 15"-18" thick and 7' or 8' from tip to tip --- it was a MANTA RAY!! It was cruising south at about 20'. We watched it for 10-15 seconds as it drifted through. It didn't hang around long enough to even get a picture, but man what a thrill!

I talked with the dive shop owner and he said that Mantas were sighted in Bonaire occasionally-the last one he knew about was about a year and a half ago.

It certainly made our trip as we had never seen one and certainly didn't expect to ever see one here. I told my wife that we could just pack up and go home-our trip was complete!

Vann Evans
Sand Dollar A4

 

[KP3S]

Talking about luck, I am still looking for one of those but no luck yet, seen a couple of eagle rays here in Puerto Rico that are very common but I wish I could see one and take some pics. On Friday I miss a Tiger Shark that was lurking around in Crashboat, Aguadilla, PR but I am glad I miss it, a friend told me that it came too close to the swimmers area, no doubt is was looking for something to eat. When it was sighted everybody got out of the water pronto and didn't go back in for the rest of the day, I wonder why?

 

[gsk3]

My wife and I spotted one of similar size at Karpata during our visit there in July. So it's definitely been less than 18 months since one was last seen

It was beautiful.

 

[darook]

What a thrill for you. LUCKY!!

 

[lmorin]

Hi Vann--Make that two mantas in two lifetimes. We were visiting our newly purchased Sand Dollar unit A15 in early August and I saw my first manta ever in about 50-70 ft straight out from the Sand Dollar/BDA dock about 10 ft below the surface in about 30-40 ft of water. Too bad you had to travel such a long way from Sand Dollar to see one! My view was much shorter than yours, however, and the one picture I took is barely recognizable.

Larry
Sand Dollar A15

 

[billmosel]

What a thrill for you and Laura. I wish we were with you on that one!!

 

[SoccerJeni]

How exciting! I hope I'm that lucky one day too!

 

[DeputyDan]

Herman and I saw a manta ray at "The Lakes" dive site in April 2009

It was not as large as the one described in the OP - but it was a manta never-the-less!