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Rays and sharks at Maavaru Corner
Underwater visibility was poor on our visit - we had a week of Force 4 winds, strong currents and a few tropical showers, which swept up a lot of sediment and organic material into the water column. Compare with better conditions in 2020.
What a sight! Two elegant Spotted Eagle Rays (Aetobatus narinari) fly past us in formation at Maavaru Corner.
Dramatic shot of a Reef Manta ray (Manta alfredi) emerging from the murk at Maavaru Corner.
A White-tip Reef Shark (Triaenodon obesus) snoozing on a nice soft bed of sand at Maavaru Corner.
The Mantas seem to like flying directly over us - perhaps they like the tickle of our air bubbles on their bellies.
Three mantas circling around over the cleaning station.
A Manta moves slowly over the cleaning station with its mouth partly open, inviting cleaner fish in to clear parasites.
The nearest one of these three has his mouth and gill slits wide open.
This one has shut its mouth - perhaps to encourage the cleaner fish to pick parasites off its skin.
More tummy-tickling.
Here is some video of the Mantas at Maavaru Corner that I shot on our last visit in 2020. It shows what the dive site can look like in better visibility.
Maavaru Corner is a beautiful dive site, even without the mantas. There's masses of reef fish, turtles, sharks, eagle rays - the lot. It's a
manta cleaning station, and at the right time of year they congregate in large numbers to have skin parasites picked off by tiny cleaner fish. This is
video I shot over three separate dives in late January 2020.
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