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Mantas in Kauai

We have had some incredible diving lately off Kauai's South Shore. The winds have been high but visibility and marine encounters have been outstanding. On the 19th of February we had two incredible encounters. Our first dive was a drop at Turtle Bluffs for a drift dive. Just as everyone reached bottom we had a rather large stingray just swim by. Stingrays were very common off the Florida Keys, sometimes we would see upwards of 10 at one site. But off Kauai you rarely ever encounter stingrays. Luckily we had the chance encounter. Our second dive site was at the Caverns. There we were audience to a manta ray swimming over the caverns. Mantas are unusual off of Kauai, but this winter we have been treated to them on a fairly regular basis. We have seen them at Nukomoi, Stonehouse, and the Caverns.

Yesterday we were diving at Stonehouse and saw three mantas. Initially we dropped down and a huge manta ta least 10 feet across swept down past us. About 30 minutes into the dive I was taking one of our divers back to the boat when two mantas, equally large, came by us once again.
In addition to the mantas we saw the usual cast of critters such as Commerson's frog fish, variety of moray, and other tropicals. At our second site, Caverns, we were greeted on the surface by a monk seal showing off it's latest catch. It seems that the seal had just procured a snack in the way of a puffer fish. It was showing off its catch to all of us on the boat.

We have had some amazing days of diving. A little rough on the surface but incredible marine encounters and overall good visibility. I have a definite smile on my face. Check out the videos, they may make you smile too.

The videos are also posted on You Tube, search scubadreamtime01, at a much higher resolution.




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