Reef Manta Ray

Photo: Below Blue Water Diver · CC BY-NC

Reef manta rays use the current-swept pinnacles of the strait as cleaning stations and feeding grounds, barrel-rolling through plankton blooms with their cephalic fins unfurled. The upwelling that characterizes this strait concentrates zooplankton in dense aggregations that mantas exploit on incoming tides. Encounters are most reliable between March and June when surface productivity peaks.