Snorkelling with Manta Rays at Nusa Penida: Where They Are, the Odds, and the Swell Problem

Reef manta rays live around Nusa Penida all year, and they come in to two spots on the island's south-west coast to be cleaned by small fish: Manta Point, under the cliffs at the southern tip, and Manta Bay, a little north. Because the cleaning stations are shallow, you can snorkel over them, which is rare, and it is the reason the boats go.

Most days there are mantas at one station or the other, and on a good morning several will circle a few metres below you for as long as you care to float. It is not guaranteed. They are wild animals, and there are days when the boats sit over the station for half an hour and nothing comes.

The better operators go to Manta Point first and early, when the water is clearest and the crowd of boats smallest, and switch to Manta Bay if the first is empty.

Manta Point faces the open Indian Ocean and takes the same swell that makes the cliffs spectacular. On a big-swell day, common in the dry season and after storms in the wet, the boats cannot safely hold position and the trip goes to the more sheltered sites instead, or does not go. That is the operator's call on the morning and it is the right one; the stories of people thrown against the cliff here are true.

The water is also cold at times, fed by upwellings from deep water, and a rash vest or a thin wetsuit turns a shivering fifteen minutes into a comfortable forty.

A snorkelling half day usually adds Crystal Bay for its coral and the chance of a mola mola in season, Gamat Bay for fish and clear water, and a drift along Wall Point or the mangrove reefs of Lembongan. Trips leave from the harbours on the north coast of Penida or from Sanur on Bali with the crossing built in, and the tours listed here cover both.

Float still and let them come. Do not swim at them, do not dive down onto the cleaning station, do not touch, and turn the flash off. A manta that is harassed leaves the station, and the next boat sees nothing. Fins on, so you can hold position against current without flailing; the guides will tell you where the current runs.