Kona Honu Divers, Inc., United States

Mike

22/05/25 at 19:27

Jill 139. Both 12lbs. The mantas are a much bigger affair now. When we did this dive in 1996 there was only our boat and about a dozen divers sitting in a circle around 1 light, and we saw 2 mantas, Taz and Lefty. Now they don't even do boats near the old Sheraton, that's all snorkelers, and the dive boats go up near the airport to the cove we moored in. MJ, the dive master who did our briefing said Lefty was first sighted in 1979, but hadn't been seen in a few years so was probably dead. This time, there were 8-10 boats, a ton of snorkelers clinging to rafts above and whooping in delight, and a big circle with 8 lights and 30-40 divers. Still it was amazing. I counted 6 at one time, but dive masters said we saw 8 different Mantas total. The ones they recognized were Big Bertha (14ft wingspan), Gaby, Hoo Ray, Rennata, and Akari. They were all large, probably none smaller than 8 ft wingspan. We spent 45 minutes on the bottom watching them swoop over us. Frank the blind eel they told us about was hanging out in the crate with the big light and got kicked out at the end. Then just when we turned to head back to the boat, 5 bottlenose dolphins were diving down and picking fish off the reef. It was incredible, and they were only about 10 ft away. Great end to great dive. Dive masters, Jason and MJ, boat captain John. Kona Honu Divers

Mike

22/05/25 at 17:01

Jill 138. Both 12lbs. Short 30-minute boat ride from Honokohau Harbor to a small cove at the airport in Kona. Did first dive before sunset. Nice easy dive along a reef to start, then we ate sandwiches, watched sunset, and then geared up for the Manta night dive. The first dive, we first looked at the "campfire" where we would later circle around to watch the Mantas. Then we cruised over to the sandy bottom to see the garden eels, and then along a very nice reef - one of the nice coral reefs we've seen in Hawaii. Saw several flounder, 3 moray eels, and Jason was excited to show us a kind of rare Longjaw Squirrel Fish. Nice easy dive and good dive group with all good easy divers.