海岸线的蝠鲼Night Dive

How It Began

Over 30 years ago, an oceanfront hotel on the Kona coast of the Big夏威夷岛在海洋上闪耀的聚光灯供客人欣赏。

他们从没想到接下来发生了什么。

灯光attracted浮游生物，恰好是最喜欢的食物of manta rays, and the plankton congregation attracted mantas that started showing up nightly to feast on the free buffet.

Not surprisingly, the mantas attracted divers.

The hotel has long been shut down- it is now the home of the Sheraton Kona Resort- but the Kona dive shops decided to move the dive and set up a ‘campfire’在科纳机场以南的灯光在一个名为的潜水地点1zplay花园鳗鱼湾。

多年后，这种潜水在一大堆LED手电筒的帮助下继1zplay续进行。浮游生物，曼塔斯和潜水员仍然每晚聚集1zplay世界上最令人惊叹的夜潜水。1zplay

Legendary Night Dive

Often considered as one of thetop diving experiences, this dive probably gives divers the best chance to see and get close to these beautiful, huge mantas. Dive operators estimate there isat least an 80% chance of seeing the mantas each night; sometimes just one or two, and some nights 10-20 mantas.

The dive is an easy dive as far as experience goes.

Most operations have a day time or twilight dive at the same site before the night dive, giving you a chance to get familiar with the site. Mantas are often seen on the day dives either being cleaned or just checking out divers!整夜潜水都花在“曼塔圈子”或“篝火1zplay晚会”上。

Divers get in a circle and kneel or sit throughout the dive in about 35 feet of water. With the help of boxes of lights and each diver holding a flashlight above their heads, the plankton will increase and the mantas come to the circle to feed.

规则

There are a few special rules for this dive to keep the mantas safe.

Touching the mantas isn’t allowed, as they have a delicate mucous coating that protects them from bacteria and parasites and we could rub that off.

Snorkels are prohibited for the same reason, as the mantas can come in very close and sometimes bump the top of your head, trying to get every last bit of the plankton cloud your light as brought in.They might touch you, but please don’t attempt to touch them.

1zplay也禁止潜水员在水柱中游泳。Mantas在喂食时进行了优美而美丽的芭蕾舞般的舞蹈，他们做看起来像腹部滚动或圆圈的事情。

他们可以撞到潜水员的游泳，这可能会伤害1zplay他们或吓sme。

Some Interesting Facts

The mantas' tails have no sting，尽管它们与黄貂鱼（也是鹰射线）有关，并且可以重达3,000磅，而机翼跨度大于20英尺。大多数科纳·曼塔斯（Kona Mantas）遍布8-12英尺。

他们奇怪的嘴部分称为头鳍，用于将水和浮游生物漏水到他们的嘴里。头鳍不喂食时卷曲，看起来与角相似。

新生儿的翅膀跨度通常约为三英尺。

Like most shark species, mantas are ovoviviparous, which means they produce live young hatched from an egg, so thebaby is hatched in the female’s oviduct and then they remain inside the mother until fully developed。

The dive site has also provided a unique opportunity for researchers. This was one of the first places divers and scientists could reliably see and study mantas.

夜间潜水的每一个麦塔都以其独特的黑白标记在此底面以其命名和命名。1zplay如果您有幸拍摄一个未知的蝠ta，您将获得命名的荣誉！

1zplay潜水店员一直在密切关注这马ntas show up each night, creating probably the largest and longest collection of manta sighting data in the world.

The first identified manta was Lefty (named because of her broken left cephalic fin) in 1979 and she still shows up to the manta circle often. Now there are more than 200 named and identified mantas in Kona and the trend for identifying has caught on worldwide.

麦塔射线最近在夏威夷受到保护, largely due to the research and work of the Manta Pacific Research Foundation, but they are not protected worldwide.

So how can you join in on this amazing dive?

Kona’s manta ray night dive happens every night at Garden Eel Cove and there are several dive operators who take divers to this site and theKona Aggressor liveaboardvisits it weekly as part of their week long charters.

The old hotel site in front of the Sheraton Hotel is also occasionally visited, although usually has less mantas than Garden Eel Cove. It is also possible for non-divers to snorkel the site and most dive shops offer both ways of seeing the mantas.

Mantas倾向于在潜水员及其灯光下粘住。1zplay通常，由于坦克清空，潜水员首先向麦1zplay塔（Mantas）告别，但如果有机会，梅塔斯（Mantas）会整夜闲逛并盛宴。潜水确实1zplay是一次了不起的经历，使这些美丽，巨大的生物如此接近潜水员。

Further Reading

夏威夷潜水商店的目录1zplay

在夏威夷潜水的目录网站1zplay

目录of Liveaboards in the United States

Overview of Diving in Hawaii

3 Legendary Night Dives in the Maldives