Snorkellers watch as a manta ray, measuring 4.5m across, glides beneath them. PHOTO / Lauren Mossop
Snorkellers watch as a manta ray, measuring 4.5m across, glides beneath them. PHOTO / Lauren Mossop
Advocate reporter Peter de Graaf meets some of Fiji's biggest, and most intriguing, locals
It measures almost five metres from fin tip to fin tip, with a cavernous, funnel-like mouth gaping more than a metre wide.
It weighs as much as a small truck but skims through the water with barely a flick of its bat-like wings.
It looks like a science fiction creation - imagine a stingray crossed with the Starship Enterprise - with a pair of horns at the corners of its immense head and enigmatic black-and-white markings across its belly.
It has 300 rows of teeth and a habit of launching itself out of the water while furiously flapping its wings.
The manta ray might sound terrifying but it is in fact a gentle giant.
Although related to the stingray it has no barb and its pinhead-sized teeth are only ever used during the rough-and-tumble of manta ray sex. And the biggest things it eats are zooplankton, critters too small to be seen without the aid of a microscope.
Even better, these huge creatures are unfazed by humans, which can make for some extraordinary underwater experiences.
Fiji's manta rays feed by swimming against the current with their huge mouths open, scooping up plankton. PHOTO / HEATHER PACEY
Oceanic manta rays, which grow up to 7m across, occasionally surprise divers at Northland's Poor Knights Islands, but the only slightly smaller reef manta ray can easily be spotted by snorkelers in Fiji any time between May and October.
At that time these surprisingly graceful creatures cruise a narrow channel in the Yasawas, an island chain northwest of Viti Levu, Fiji's main island, scooping up huge quantities of water and plankton as they swim against tidal currents.
Marine biologist Dan Bowling, who is based at Barefoot Island Resort, is in awe of these little-understood creatures.
"As a species we know just about nothing about them," he says.
What is known is that 42 different manta rays, identified by the markings on their bellies, frequent the channel between Naviti and Drawaqa islands.
They're known to be reasonably smart - roughly on the level of a three-year-old child - and to live for up to 20 years.
Manta rays have three reasons for visiting the channel, Dan says.
The first is to feed, swimming against the current with funnel-like mouths open and filtering plankton from the water. Their horns are actually rolled-up fins called cephalic fin-lobes; when unfurled they act as scoops channelling food into that gaping mouth.
The second is to scrub up. Parasites and bits of food get lodged in their gills, so manta rays will regularly call in at "cleaning stations" where specialised reef fish pick their gills and wounds clean.
And the third reason, which they have in common with some human visitors to Fiji, is romance. Manta ray foreplay involves a chain of males swimming in a "mating train" behind a single female, like a conga line at a disco but with underwater somersaults. Baby rays can measure 2m across and are born "rolled up like a burrito", Dan says.
A manta ray cruises a channel in Fiji's Yasawa Islands. PHOTO / PETER DE GRAAF
The only threats to the manta rays are sharks and humans. Like the Europeans who associated their horns with the devil, Fijians once feared manta rays as bad omens and killed them.
Now, far from bringing misfortune, the rays bring tourists and money to a corner of Fiji with earning opportunities are few.
A 2013 study estimated that worldwide spending on manta ray diving and snorkelling trips amounts to NZ$85 million a year, with a direct economic impact of $165m. Of that, Fiji's share is estimated to be $1.9m a year.
Unfortunately, a new threat has emerged in recent years from Chinese medicine.
Manta rays have an extraordinary ability to filter plankton from water using feathery organs called gill rakers. A belief that these organs, when eaten as soup, can also filter impurities from the body means they are sought after as a "traditional" remedy.
Perhaps the best hope for these magnificent creatures is that they are worth much more as living tourist attractions than as ground-up gills in a jar.
Fancy getting up close and personal with a manta ray?
Half a dozen resorts in Fiji's Yasawa Islands offer manta ray snorkelling trips, but Barefoot Island Resort is arguably the best base because it's right next to the channel where the huge creatures feed.
Snorkellers are expected to take part in an information and safety briefing held daily at 4pm. Boats depart when rays are spotted feeding in the channel, which is usually at high tide and is signalled by the beating of a traditional drum. The trip costs F$42, which includes snorkel gear hire.
Snorkellers are advised to avoid getting in front of manta rays - it can give the creatures a fright because they can't see what's directly ahead of them - and not to touch. The protective layer of mucus on their skin is easily broken and the bacteria on human skin can give them a nasty infection.
Barefoot Island Resort, on Drawaqa Island, is a three-hour ferry trip on the Yasawa Flyer from Nadi's Port Denarau. Resort prices (including three meals a day) start from F$117 a night for dorm accommodation. A standard bure with shared bathroom is F$160 and a safari tent with en suite is F$220. One Fiji dollar is roughly NZ$0.65.
Go to www.fiji.travel and www.barefootislandfiji.com for more information. See www.mantatrust.org to learn more about the threats facing manta rays.
