Thursday night, April 3, we took a glass bottomed boat excursion on the Spirit of Kona. We were five people amid a total of about 15, so the boat was not crowded, and we easily had a good seat around the glass view ports. We traveled south to a point just off the Sheraton Hotel where plankton upwell, and there the lights hovered over the sea bottom as we waited--first, however, two bottle nosed dolphin came streaking under our boat a couple of times. Then, after about ten minutes, here came the first manta. It did belly rolls under our view ports, providing up close views of its giant maw through which it streamed water to filter out the plankton.
Manta rays along the Kona coast are one of the eagle rays belonging to the genus Manta. Theie wingspan reaches 18 ft, abd the ones swimming under our boat were larger than ten feet across. They have triangular pectoral fins and a huge forward-facing mouth. They are not stinging rays.
These pelagic species tend to be resident to the area and hug the oastal areas. They are filter feeders and eat large quantities of zooplankton, which they swallow with their open mouths as they swim. Gestation lasts over a year, producing live pups.
The following picture was one of mine, and you can see the large mouth with the intricate "filter" setup within:
Holly used her phone to video one session (ultimately two mantas were doing loops beneath us):
This was a very special experience, and the creatures are beautiful.
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