into the lair or the dancing manta rays

            Lonnie had read about nightly tours offering a once-in-a-lifetime chance to swim with manta rays.  This might sound frightening at first, and the rays are four-meter multi-tonne black and white wraith-like creatures looking a bit like B2 bombers sailing through the water, but despite carvenous maws, all they eat is plankton, being filter feeders like blue whales.  This is how the tours work:  they deploy a floating surfboard-like object that we clung to in the evening, which emitted a soft, almost soothing blue light into the water below.  Peering down with our snorkels, the light attracted the plankton in the bay, and the profusion of food in turn attracted the manta rays to congregate.  And congregate they did, in vast numbers, dancing acrobatically amongst each other and soaring to the surface, in some cases getting a little too close to us floaters on the surface and bumping into us, which is no small thing when the thing bumping you is the size and mass of a VW bug.

Evidently the entire affair began by accident: a popular hotel on the coast of the Keahou Bay had long left its beach lights on at night, and local boaters notices that the lights were attracting plankton, and rays learned to expect rich feeding in the bay.  And so a minor industry was born.

Taken in: United States / Hawaii / Keauhou (show map)

Taken on: November 27, 2021

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Sets appears in: • 2021 mokupuni o hawai'i

Camera: Google Pixel 3, f/1.8, 1/56 sec, 4.4mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Google Pixel 3
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	0.018 sec (1/56)
Focal Length:	4.4mm
ISO:	250
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	HDR+ 1.0.388784762nl
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