The Dives
The most exceptionnal encounters you can make in Revillagigedo are with
the Giant Manta Rays.
It's
true that there are many destinations where one can see this beautiful
animal, such as French Polynesia (in Rangiroa), in the Maldives, or
Indonesia.
But apart from another special place I was told about (Sangalaki, and
it was 10 years ago), this is a special place.
Indeed,
contrary to people might think, according to the images, the caresses
between the animals and the divers are not being imposed by the lattest
; they are accepted, even wanted by the Mantas.
During our trip
to the islands, we had a briefing concerning encounters with the Mantas
: how to lure them, to approach them, to carress them.
As one
can see ( and on two other videos to come), there is no cleaning
station ; the action is between 25m and the surface : in the blue.
It's
quite easy to get very near, just by being gentle and swift. For me,
with the video camera, it's awesome because filming in the blue like
that give "fluidity" to the images, and a lot of nice angles. Contrary
to most of the times, on cleaning stations, where you're sitting or
hiding on the rocks.
To get their attention, you've got to make
"eye contact" ; they're quite sensible to that. Then you might get into
their direction and raise one arm, in case they could fly just above
you...which can happen, and did happened !!!!
A friend of mine,
a few month earlier, told me that when she got back to the surface, the
Mantas came along, and seemed very desappointed to be left alone...
The Film
We dove a number of time in Rocca Partida and in San
Benedicto, with the Mantas. We were quite lucky to have several dives
with them, with good visibility and soft currents.
So I got a
lot of images, hence three manta sequences (almost four), and some hard
choices to keep only the best shots and leave the rest on the editing
table, or rather inside my computer...