Diving with Manta Rays
You can look forward to some frontier diving with opportunities to dive alongside graceful, sleek manta rays at Sangalaki Island. Although actually part of Indonesia, the island is most accessible from Malaysia.
In the waters around Sangalaki, there are numerous manta cleaning stations - cleaner wrasse are found aplenty here, which obligingly clean all the grime and parasites off the skin and gills of the manta rays. Numerous mantas therefore gather here for their regular cleaning sessions. If you head out to one of these cleaning sessions, you have quite an experience in store for you. You'll find yourself eye-to-eye with the mantas as they are generally inquisitive and quite friendly by nature and will probably approach you.
So, while dive sites in other global locations may hold encounters with mantas if you're lucky, when you're scuba diving at Sangalaki, luck is not a pre-requisite. Nature is on your side, guaranteeing manta rays on almost every dive.
The manta rays are found in numbers as large as 50 at the dive sites found on the east coast, namely Manta Avenue, Manta Parade and Manta Run. Usually, you'll find these graceful mantas near the surface with their gills wide open as they feed on the rich plankton to be found in these waters. The mantas can also be found cruising the seas or less often foraging for sustenance down on the sandy sea beds.
Another highlight of Sangalaki diving is the site known as Jellyfish Lake on nearby Kakaban Island - the sight of thousands of jellyfish floating around you has an almost otherworldly beauty to it, and you need have no fear of stings while snorkelling here (you can't dive in the lake). There are four different varieties of jellyfish in the lake situated in the middle of the island. With no access to the open sea, the jellyfish here have had no encounters with their natural predators and as a result have lost their sting.
Other underwater treats in store for you are the enormous numbers of green turtles, sightings of rays, cuttlefish, batfish, groupers, sweetlips and moray eels.
Diving Season
Diving season is all year round due to the island's unique geographical position. Only two degrees north of the Equator, it is not affected by the monsoon seasons and typhoons prevalent in other parts of South East Asia.
Reef Basics
Great for: Large animals, underwater photography and advanced divers
Not so great for: Non-diving activities
Depth: 10 - >40m
Visibility: 10 - 30m
Currents: Moderate
Surface Conditions: Can be choppy
Water Temperature: 28 - 30°C
Experience Level: Beginner - advanced
Number of dive sites: 13
Access: Sangalaki scuba diving resort
Recommended length of stay: 6 - 8 days
Dive Sites
More detailed information on Sangalaki dive sites:
Dive The World Recommendations: Manta Parade and Jellyfish Lake.
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