Manta Ray and more at our New Snorkel Spot in Puako, Big Island

 

Manta Ray gliding over the reef.

Heading out for an exploratory morning snorkel. The weather was a bit strange today so the area up around Puako was the only calm waters to snorkel. I knew there were spots to snorkel here on the reef, but I didn't know how good it was going to be.

After getting tied up, we jumped in the water to see what we could find.

A dangerous looking crown-of-thorns sea star was spotted early in our snorkel. You don't want to see too many of these on the reef, because they eat coral.

I've heard that the spikes of a crown-of-thorns sea star are very sharp, like glass. I haven't tested this out yet.

I almost didn't believe my ears when someone said manta ray. But sure enough, here it came, gliding over the shallow reef.

I tried to freedive down under the manta so I could get a photo ID. We use the black marks on the underside of the ray to catalogue them. This was an 8ft male named Pu'uwai.

Snorkelers and divers unite to swim with mantas.

How lucky are we to swim with these magnificent creatures. They have no teeth, and no stinger, and this one was not too timid.

This is the first manta I've seen in Hawaii this year.

And if mantas weren't enough, there were also turtles!

This turtle emerged out of a lava tube and hovered over the reef, waiting for little reef fish to come out and clean it.

I dove down into one of the lava tubes and found out it connected under the reef for quite a ways. I emerged at a different entrance.

Then the manta ray came back! This is our videographer Ryan hanging with his new friend.

Then a white tip reef shark swam past. I almost didn't know which direction to look!

The white tip reef shark was pretty deep, so I only got a few pictures of it.

Manta in the light rays. It was a beautiful morning on the reef.

This manta was big. About eight feet from wingtip to wingtip. It was so graceful as it flew over the shallow reef. I wanted to stay with it all day, and luckily it allowed us to swim with it for a long time.

Looking straight down at a manta.

Manta coming at me!

We also saw several species of moray eels. This is a baby white mouth moray eel.

This is my coworker Nick, swimming with the manta.

Giant porcupinefish heading my way.

Extreme closeup of a large yellow-mouth moray.

Close encounter with a sea turtle as some of my guests watch on from the surface.

This turtle was diving down into a lava tube.

Zebra moray spotted! We hardly ever see this species of eel during our day snorkels. Pretty fun!

A big white mouth moray eel looks out from beyond the coral.