Now this is exciting!
Karla, a forum member over at Virgin Islands On Line, shared a very cool video yesterday of a manta ray over at Great Lameshur Bay. It’s pretty impressive. You have to check it out:
Manta rays have been spotted around St. John but are not commonly seen. Their wing spans can measure up to about 23 feet wide and they can weigh up to 3,000 pounds. Simply amazing.
We saw a manta ray at Lamesure on Tuesday as well! It was fairly shallow and not far from the reef on the left. I wasn’t expecting it and was quite startled when I turned and saw it just a few feet away – had only seen sting rays up until then. After we left the water we kept seeing it near the surface, flipping around and such. Very cool!
Wonderful! How very lucky to see that and capture such a beautiful video. Karla must have been swimming like crazy to keep up with that manta ray – they look graceful and slow but are actually moving very swiftly through the water! Three or four years ago I had the experience of swimming with a manta ray at Big Maho beach and consider it one of the top high points of all the times I have snorkeled around St. John.