Lots of local manta ray experiences lately in Costa Rica

For the past few weeks we have had a huge influx of manta rays which have been visiting our local dive sites. This is an unexpected treat for us, as most of the time we venture to the Catalinas to view the manta rays. The sightings have been occurring much more recently in our local diving areas such as Punta Gorda, Monkey Head and an unbelievably rare and special sighting which happened at Argentina Point.

On this day we came across a perfectly white manta ray. While most manta rays have atleast some white on them, especially on their underside, it is extremely rare that mantas will be completely white. Upon doing some looking online for the rarest albino animals you will find Manta Ray listed in several sites within the top 10. Even further still, any confirmed sightings of albino mantas which I was able to find were mostly in Indonesia and Malaysia. Found no reference in Central America at all.

Manta Rays are a very large and majestic animal but which we still have a lot to learn about. We know that they can travel vast distances across open oceans, they swim at depths of at least 1200 feet with some reports saying they can reach depths up to 4000 feet. Lucky for us, mantas do come into the shallower waters near shore to feed and also visit cleaning stations. This is where we get to enjoy their presence.

Needless to say we are extremely fortunate to have witnessed this incredibly rare animal and very fortunate to have had a diver in the water with a camera who was able to snap a picture. Many thanks to Eduardo Sobrosa for sharing the day, the experience and the photo with us to use!

Edit: We also have been fortunate enough to have been given some aerial photos from Rolbin Garcia Mendez who owns www.mareaaltacostarica.com showing both the albino manta and an almost pure black manta. These have been added to the right!

Pura Vida!