Manta bodyslams my hubby!!!

[Chocoholic]

WE went night diving with mantas near Kona. It was awesome, except my hubby was snorkeling with just him and a DM, the manta got fresh, then she body-slammed him off the surface and broke a rib. Has a huge goose-egg size of a small basketball. Anyone else have any manta strikes out there?

 

[Jnsey]

I'm just gonna hide this thread from my wife, I had to reassure her how safe it was so many times before we went I was about to just give up but she ended up having a wonderful time, we used BID and she was the only snorkeler on our boat too. What exactly happend? Wife said they would come up belly to belly with with snorkelers but I didn't think it was that close.

 

[cannon fodder]

I crashed into sting ray snorkeling of Belize once. This was a ship's shore excursion with plenty of splashing/screaming kids. I tried to get around them and hit the sting ray head on as it was coming around from the other side. The sting ray shot off, probably annoyed at the gringo's ruining its day. I found out that I was allergic to sting rays, it left a rash down my side.

 

[Tigerman]

If it did that on purpose, for any other reason than harassing you, you should be glad it didn't sting instead
Do keep in mind how Steve Irwin passed - if you crowd wild animals and trigger their fight or flee instincts, you never know what you'll get..

 

[Chocoholic]

He was stationary on the surface, the manta did a bunch of passes and then just decided to take him out with a direct hit to the ribs. The DM said he thought it was deliberate on the manta's part. He said 'she' was an aggressive one that they hadn't seen before.
Who knows why, but they also said they've never heard of anyone getting hit that hard by a manta before.

---------- Post added September 4th, 2013 at 04:24 PM ----------

I didn't see any barbs on their tails so I don't think they can sting like a sting ray that took out Steve Irwin.

 

[fisheater]

Correct. Manta do NOT have any stingers.

They may be called "Devil Rays," but they're gentle filter feeders.

 

[Chocoholic]

They were gentle with us down on the bottom, they would glide right over my head and I barely felt my hair move. Very Awesome, until I surfaced and found out what had happened to my husband. But still a very awesome dive for me.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

WE went night diving with mantas near Kona. It was awesome, except my hubby was snorkeling with just him and a DM, the manta got fresh, then she body-slammed him off the surface and broke a rib. Has a huge goose-egg size of a small basketball. Anyone else have any manta strikes out there?

Highly unusual. I can't say I ever heard of an "intentional" hit. Your husband was horizontal on the surface, not upright in the water, right? The manta swam vertically up into him? Really strange.

They do make close passes, and snorkelers are instructed to lie horizontal on the surface, but this sounds like very untypical behavior.

Sorry to hear that happened. The mantas I've seen, night or day, have always been super docile. Hard to picture one being aggressive.

Hope your husband heals quickly!

Best wishes.

 

[Chocoholic]

He was stationary on the surface, horizontal, floating holding on to the surf board with the lights on it. The manta had done about 15 passes before hitting him hard enough to knock his mask off and knock him off the handles of the surf board. The plankton was really thick so maybe that's it??

 

[danvolker]

If his lights were bothering the eyesight of the manta...that could explain a "retaliatory" strike....I have shined powerful canister lights at good sized sharks on night dives before, and caused them to charge at me for my uncouthness ;-). ...The proper etiquette is not to blind them