Manta Ray Snorkeling Experience in Bali

During my recent trip to Bali, I was hoping to check off one of my bucket list adventures and spend some time with Komodo dragons. These massive reptiles can only be found around the island of Komodo in Indonesia and their danger, strength and size is something I’ve been wanting to witness for years.  However, schedules were not permitting on this trip, so we decided to confine our trip to the idyllic island of Bali instead.

Mainly seeking relaxation for this particular journey, we stayed around the coastal towns of Sanur and Seminyak.  Both amazing in their own style and excellent launching points for exploring other attractions around the island.  Still yearning for a wildlife encounter other than macaque monkeys and mosquitoes, I hoped to get up close to a different giant – the Manta Rays, who migrate to Nusa Penida, a small set of islands just off the coast of Sanur.

With a wingspan that can reach 5 meters, the species found in Nusa Penida are reef manta rays or ocean manta rays. There are also Mobula rays in Nusa Penida. They are smaller but you can sometimes confuse them with young mantas. Every day the rays arrive at the cleaning station – a naturally occurring, reef-like location where fish gather to be cleaned of the parasites present on their body by various smaller animals such as cleaner shrimp and cleaner fish, notably wrasses and gobies, forming a kind of symbiosis.

I was anxious to find an operator who shared Odyssey World’s commitment to responsible tourism.  Since working at a marine science facility in the Florida Keys in the late 90’s, the practices of safe and sensitive ocean exploration have stayed with me forever, and I’m often saddened to witness irresponsible and dangerous behaviours around the ocean, especially in developing tourism areas.  With some research and references, I contacted Neptune Dive Centre, who assured me of their commitment to sustainable practices, and we were booked for the next day!

It is true that the boat ride to Nusa Penida is bumpy – I would advise accepting the seasickness tablet offered.  But our journey was relatively comfortable, safety and care was good and within 40 minutes, we were approaching the island, not 20 metres from the rocky cliff face towering above us. After heaving ourselves into wetsuits (protest as I might, I was thankful for their buoyancy, sun protection and comfort from the surprisingly refreshing sea temperature), the scuba divers set off and we were to jump in with our snorkeling guide and hope we might get lucky and catch the Mantas at the cleaning station.

Masks and fins on, big jump in to deep water, face down…..and I was 3 metres away from five of the most magnificent sea creatures I have ever seen. For 50 minutes, we floated and gazed in awe at three Giant Oceanic Manta Rays circling around their cleaning station and two smaller but still mighty Reef Manta Rays popping along to join them. The fluidity of motion of these beasts was something special as they took no notice of us but swept around the cleaning rock, cavernous mouths open, inviting the fish inside to clean, and exposing their inner gills.

When we met up with the scuba divers, they were actually quite envious that it appeared we had a better view!  While they were on the ocean floor, 12 metres down and looking up, we were swimming freely, without equipment and oxygen tanks and free-diving within a metre of these amazing rays!  It’s an ocean experience i’ll never forget.

I’ll offer a further nod to Neptune Dive Centre who provided a tasty lunch, snacks and drinks, all served in heavy duty school ‘packed lunch’ boxes that were fully washable and refillable so the waste on our excursion was minimal.

The images of the rays here are not mine, but I was also grateful that I didn’t have my underwater camera, so I could  mentally log every moment of a very special experience.  Just another highlight of an unbeatable Odyssey World holiday to Bali!