Third Time Lucky in the Maldives (May 2006) by Tracy Crump

AS A diver in tropical waters you are often priviledged enough to see clownfish hovering back and forth above their anenome homes, boxfish dizzily swimming in all directions and turtles lazily gliding alongside you but nothing comes close to seeing manta rays. On a trip to the Maldives you are pretty much guaranteed a sighting…

Stuart and I were booked onto the Sea Queen’s North Male Atoll itinery through Scuba Tours in May 2006 and were lucky enough to have Anne-Marie Kitchen-Wheeler as our dive guide, who happens to be Four Times British Women's Freediving Champion.

She is also a leading expert in manta ray research and for the last five years has been tracking their migration patterns and behaviours. By keeping a record of the markings on their bellies she has managed to prove that the same population of beautiful mantas move from east to west throughout the year following the plankton movement. What a dive guide to have on our trip!

(Pictured above, a Manta Ray followed by a Remora)

On Cocoa Thila Corner we saw mantas for the first time. We had just finished our dive but soon dropped back in to snorkel with them but disappointingly they disappeared as quickly as they had arrived.

At Boduhith Thila the disappointment soon faded as we saw seven white tip reef sharks – one of which was only a few metres away, followed by an octopus and then a split second sighting of a manta.

It was only when we reached our 3min safety stop at 5metres that we could see many mantas by our dhoni (wooden boat). They aren’t usually spotted at this location, which made the sighting even more special, and the fact that there were three and at least another five slightly further away eating the surface plankton.

Six dives later, the following day, at Lankanfindlhu it was Manta City! Within minutes of descending there were four mantas at the cleaning station gracefully swooping low over our heads. One, even named Butterfly by Anne-Marie, the dominant female, had pilot fish close in front of her, and all four were being marked by remoras, which quite often found themselves unable to keep up!

After a 45minute astonishing display a dive school did their safety stops above the mantas, which prompted them to disappear. As soon as the divers had got out of the water two of the mantas reappeared. On this dive there were also a couple of grey reef sharks.

On the way back to the Sea Queen a pod of dolphins decided to follow us – many jumping out of the water. A fantastic end to a fabulous dive.