I you’re like me and snorkelling with manta rays is on your bucket list, then Nusa Penida is the place to visit. Two types of manta rays are found in our oceans, manta alfredi and manta birostris . M. alfredi can easily be found off the shores of Nusa Penida and reach up to 5.5 metres in diameter. This is in contrast to the 7 metre span of their gargantuan M. birostris relatives, who tend to reside in the open ocean.
Mantas can be found around Nusa Penida at Manta Bay and Manta Point, which correspond to the mantas’ feeding station and cleaning station respectively. We visited their feeding station at Manta Bay as the first of four snorkelling points on a tour we organised at Toya Pakeh harbour the previous day.
Whilst Manta Bay is closer to the harbour on the west of Nusa Penida, Manta Point is on the south of the island. The stretch of water on the south side of the island is heavily affected by the ocean’s swell as the water here is relatively unsheltered, with the closest landmass to the south being the northern coast of Western Australia. As a result, snorkelling tours on small boats leaving from Toya Pakeh harbour won’t travel to Manta Point, whereas scuba diving expeditions using larger boats will. Tours leaving from Bali can visit either, but be ready for a rough ride if the swell is high.
Indonesia, and in particular Nusa Penida, is a special place for mantas. They can generally be found year round at this destination due to a constant supply of food (plankton and other small invertebrates that hitchhike the ocean’s currents), provided by the Indonesian Throughflow. This current allows warm, fresh water to move from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean and brings with it all the rich nutrients needed to support a manta family. Unfortunately, the Throughflow doesn’t only transport nutrients and marine life, and it is sad to see that large volumes of plastic waste also catch a ride on this current. If anything can highlight the importance of keeping our oceans clean, it would be to preserve habitats such as this. It wasn’t particularly bad on our trip, but it is not hard to imagine a future where you have to wade through a layer of intercontinental trash to see the majesty of a manta ray gliding through a cloud of plankton.
Snorkelling trips leave from Bali or Nusa Penida, although if you have time and are serious about seeing mantas, we recommend Nusa Penida for the following reasons:
You arrive at Manta Bay early in the morning, which is prime time for manta feeding (on plankton, not you!)
The day-tripping boats from Bali haven’t arrived yet
In Nusa Penida, you can organise a tour easily at Toya Pakeh harbour. We haggled minimally and they dropped the price from 250,000 to 225,000 IDR for 3 hours (includes snorkel and fins). If you really want to drive a hard bargain you could probably get a tour for around 200,000 IDR.
Our tour had a reasonable 8:00am start, and we were pleased that the boat wasn’t overpacked, totalling at about 12 people including the crew. Our first destination was obviously manta bay, and it only took a few minutes of searching for one of the crew to spot the giant creature. One was soon joined by some friends, and we probably saw at least 5 mantas with wingspans ranging from just under a metre to over two! Although no specifics on manta diving etiquette were given at the start of the trip it was good to see everyone respect the mantas’ personal space by not touching them. As a side note, it would also be a good idea to wear protective swimwear that covers as much exposed skin as possible, as other predators of plankton such as jellyfish are there in abundance. I was stung several times on the face and neck while recklessly pursuing a speeding manta, and it definitely hurts, though Maria thinks I should just suck it up.
After thirty minutes or so we were all pretty tired from keeping up with the deceptively fast rays and we moved on to the next snorkel spots.
The other snorkelling points included:
Crystal Bay – fairly disappointing as there was an abundance of dead coral and concrete blocks underwater
Wall Point – a cliffside near the harbour with abundant fish life
Near the fishing boats at the harbour – to see tuna and trevally (no giant trevally here, sorry!)
Gamat Bay – in between the harbour and Crystal Bay, again lots of fish life
All in all, if you wanted to see manta rays, this option provided the cheapest and easiest way that we had ever come across to witness these animals in the wild. This of course comes with the caveat that, being wild animals, they may not show up for you on your day, but it certainly is a high chance. You will not regret laying down $25 AUD for this.
I would be the first to admit that my skill and experience level with underwater photography is not advanced. However, a week before this trip I got a GoPro Hero (2018) in the Black Friday sales and I am more than happy with the footage I was able to capture.
