Off of the west coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, to the North of the city of Kona, there is a reef dropoff with an upwelling current that has been found to be appealing to the Pacific Manta Ray to feed on plankton.

Adding to this natural appeal is Man, who has added a couple of milk crates worth of dive lights before sunset, to encourage the Mantas to congregate around the lights to feed, and thus be watched by snorkelers and scuba divers.

On this night, there were thirteen (13) unique mantas identified.   The Manta Pacific Research Foundation provides a Kona Manta Identification Guide, which can be found here.

-hh