Manta Channel

Manta Channel is a wide natural passage between two reef systems where the current funnels nutrient-rich water and concentrates the plankton that oceanic manta rays depend on — the result is one of the most reliable manta ray cleaning and feeding stations in the southern Maldives. Divers descend to a cleaning station at 15 metres and wait on the sandy bottom as resident mantas make pass after pass, banking around the cleaning coral heads while cleaner wrasse methodically remove parasites from their gill slits, mouths, and wing undersides. On the strongest incoming tides, mantas feed in mid-water directly above the channel in barrel-rolling formation — a technique that concentrates zooplankton in a column before the manta sweeps through with its cephalic fins spread wide.