Dive Details

Location

Date

26 February, 2013

Time

12:45pm - 2:00pm

Details

The 20th dive of the Raja Ampat trip in February 2013 on board the S/Y Indo Siren and the first of two dives at Manta Sandy. Manta Sandy is a cleaning station for reef mantas, Manta alfredi with a line of rubble behind which we viewed the mantas as they came in to be cleaned over two bommies.

Unfortunately, on the day it was overcast and the visibility was not very good. This meant the videos did not come out all that well. Despite the poor conditions, we have a lot of manta action for over an hour. It was great to watch them come in and pause over the bommies to be cleaned. At one point there were at least 4 mantas performing in front of us. We also go buzzed by a black manta.

There was saddled puffer swimming in front of use while we were watching the mantas that had two weird growths on each side of its face. They didn't seem to be troubling it.

After watching the mantas we did our safety stop in the shallows where there were hundreds of shrimp gobies.

Buddy

Sheree Papuni

Seas

Flat

Visibility

20 metres

Duration

74 minutes

Maximum depth

16.0 m

Average depth

12.9 m

Water temperature

28.5°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Video

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D7000

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6801.70

Lens port

Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41

Strobe

2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161

Photographs

Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.

Sea hare, Elysia ornata. m.
 

Saddled puffer,Canthigaster valentini, with growths on its mouth. 14.9 m.
 

Feybe's handiwork. 14.6 m.
 

Yellow shrimp goby, Cryptocentrus cinctus. 4.9 m.