Manta Ray Bay has often been the base for film crews.  We have just finished hosting an Australian TV crew called Kaufmann Productions .  They were here as part of a larger filming project which is concentrating on the four main manta hotspots around the globe, namely, Mexico, Maldives, Australia and of course Yap.  Yap has  recently been designated a manta sanctuary, which will thankfully help to protect the resident population of mantas from being hunted like they are in many areas of the world.   Speaking with Gisela Kaufmann, the team leader, she told me one of the reasons they came to Yap was purely down to the years of hard work Bill Acker has done working with these amazing creatures and helping to put them on the dive map.

Bill spent most of his days working with the crew, taking them to various dive sites such as Miil Channel, narrating to the camera and giving his observations over the years.  The crew managed to get some great manta footage; including the amazing mating ritual, where it is possible to see more than a dozen mantas circling in the water as part of their courtship ritual.  The crew also managed to get down Yap Day which was held this year in the municipality of Tamil to get some fantastic footage of Yapese culture in full swing.  Yap Day is a celebration of Yapese culture and draws visitors from around the world and is held every year on the 1 – 2 March.

Part of the filming team included Dr Kathy Townsend, the lead scientist with Project Manta in Australia.  Speaking with her she told me of her excitement of what they had filmed and potentially discovered in Yapese waters in respects to manta behavior.  She believes that Yap may be a manta nursery.  If this proves to be true, it will be one of the very few identified on the planet and will thus help us learn way more about these elusive gentle creatures.

When complete the documentary will be shown on leading European and Australian public television channels sometime in mid 2011.

Wednesday 24^th February, was Scuba Safari with Bill Acker day at the Manta Ray Bay Resort.  This event has really taken off, so much so we needed to take out Popou, our largest dive boat to carry all our guests.

Scuba Safari is a great way for guests to get to dive with Bill, the pioneer of diving in Yap.  He has discovered more than 50 sites here in these beautiful islands, so this is a wonderful way to get the spirit of discovery and group camaraderie all in one.   Bill tries to use these Safaris to search out potential new dive sites as well as visiting some of the more rarely dived areas.  He also doesn’t neglect some of the more famous sites so the weather and water conditions determine where these Safaris go each week.

Today 15 intrepid divers took to the Pacific for a three tank dive with lunch provided from the Mnuw; they were, Bill & Vicki Wells from Belmont CA, Johan & Maria Edelsvard from Taby Sweden, Andrew Revel from Heboken NJ, Brian Buzzeli from Pennsylvania, Reindhart Arnd & Ursula Nuutinen from Berlin Germany, Joe Becker from Beaverton OR, Craig & Colleen Barlett from Vermont, Alex & Dolores Sastre from Buenos Aires Argentina and Kriss Kirchoff from Libertyville IL.

This gang of divers joined Bill assisted by Chomed, one of our Dive Masters and Willy, the skipper of Popou.  They did Magic Kingdow, Spanish Walls (actually began North to see what that part of the reef was like) and the day culminated with Yap Caverns/Lion Fish Wall as a combination.  There were smiles all around both before and after the trip with the only disappointed people being those that were leaving the night before.

We have guests, and prospective guests, from around the world, and some of these people can not transit Guam, due to U.S. visa regulations.  For these people, the only way to get to Yap is via Manila to Palau to Yap back to Palau for a day and then back to Manila.  Not all that convenient but workable with the big drawback being prices for airline tickets.

Thanks to our friends at Continental, the price portion has been solved!  We now have a base price of $450 for airline e-tickets, from Manila to Palau to Yap back to Palau and back to Manila!  This is very good news indeed, especially for our friends not on the U.S. visa waiver program.

If interested, please contact Bill Acker directly at bill@mantaray.com.  He is here to help you and can now help you with flights from Japan to Yap, from Palau to Yap and from Manila to Yap, via Palau.

By the way, the reason we are doing all of this, is to help introduce you to the wonders of Yap and the ambiance of the Manta Ray Bay Resort.  The weather has been perfect lately, the diving superb and all that is really missing is – you.

As mentioned in the last blog post, Bill has been working with the good people of Continental Airlines in order to try and help our valued customers get to Yap cheaper and easier.  The result of these talks is a Special Net Fare Agreement between Continental and the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers.

We have been given special net rates from Tokyo, Japan and Nagoya, Japan to Yap via Guam with an add-on fare for Palau.  The base rate starts at $600 per person from Nagoya and $650 from Tokyo.  The add-on for Palau has a base price of $250.  We also have a base rate from Palau to Yap to Palau of $250.  We say “base rate” because there are some taxes and fees that go with these rates but, in general, they are very minor.  If this is of interest to you, please e-mail Bill directly at bill@mantaray.com and he will get a firm quote for you.

Continental Airlines is a new member of the Star Alliance which means carriers from Europe to Tokyo would include Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss Air, Austrian Air & LOT just to name a few.  If you are a frequent flier with any of these airlines, you will earn miles for your entire trip.  The best thing about these fares out of Japan is the travel time and ease with which you can get to Yap.  The connections in Japan are excellent, your bags are checked to Yap, or Palau, at your departure airport and the connections in Guam are excellent as well.  No layovers, no stopovers.  From your bed to our dive boat as fast as possible.

For those going to Palau with China Air, you can use our special priced tickets from Palau to Yap to Palau to help you expand your dive trip to two islands for the price of one trip.  Again, for more information, please contact Bill Acker at bill@mantaray.com.  We hope to see you in Yap soon!

Follow Airline updates with RSS.

Now that Bill, Detlef, Jan and Daniel have finished the BOOT Show in Dusseldorf, Germany it’s time to begin the follow-up for the many inquires from our friends and potential European dive guests.  The largest single topic discussed at the show, by far, was the high cost of getting to Yap and the perceived difficulty of getting here.

Yesterday, Bill began working on solutions to these perceived problems and is working with Continental Airlines on a number of ticketing options and prices that will be available for our European guests.  If this program proves to be a success, then both parties may very well extend these options to North American travelers as well.

Please continue to watch this space for more specific details as they become available, or follow airline updates with RSS.

Hallo ihr alle,
ich bin wieder gut gelandet im Mikronesien und somit wieder im Manta Ray Bay
Resort bei den Yap Divers. Auf diesem Weg möchte ich mich nochmals bei allen Messebesuchern der BOOT 2010, bei Freunden, sowie bei denjenigen die Interesse an Yap gefunden haben bedanken. Solltet ihr Hilfe benötigen bei eurer Urlaubsplanung bin ich gern für euch da und gebe euch Rückanwort in Deutsch oder Englisch.
Bitte schreibt Detlef Trux an yapdivers@mantaray.com.

Bis bald, mit freundlichen Gruessen aus Yap.

Detlef Trux

Bill Acker, Yap Divers manager Jan Sledsens and Roger from German dive travel agency Roger Tours at the Manta Ray Bay Resort booth

Hello everybody,

I finally made my way back to Micronesia and Manta Ray Bay Resort
and Yap Divers. I want to take the opportunity to thank all visitors of the BOOT 2010 (Europe’s biggest dive show in Düsseldorf, Germany)
and extend my thanks to friends and those, who found a new interest in Yap.
Should you need assistance for your holiday plans, I will be there to help you and answer you in German or English.

Please send your inquiries to: yapdivers@mantaray.com.

See you soon, very best wishes from Yap,

Detlef Trux

Aftershow Yap family meeting in Düsseldorf's famous altbeerkeller "Schlüssel" (with Detlef on the outer left)

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Salon de la Plongee Paris

January 15-18
Our dive center manager Jan Sledsens, will be present at the 12th Paris International Dive Show.
Booth number: D21 (Key Largo Diving Travel)

Parc des Expositions 
Porte de Versailles 
Paris, France

More information:
http://keylargo.to
http://salondelaplongee.com

Boot Düsseldorf

January 23-31
Our staff, MRBR CEO Bill Acker and his wife Patricia, dive center manager Jan Sledsens, Detlef Trux and Daniel Brinckmann will be present at Europe’s biggest dive show.
Booth number: E20 (Quality Divers compound), hall 3

Address:
Messe Düsseldorf
Stockumer Kirchstraße 61
D-40474 Düsseldorf, Germany
More information:

http://boot.de
http://qualitydivers.com

FESPO Zürich

January 28-31

Booth number: 6.084 (Schöner tauchen diving travel)

Our European PR manager Daniel Brinckmann will be present at Switzerland’s premier dive show.

Address:
Messezentrum Zürich
Wallisellenstrasse 49
8050 Zürich, Switzerland

More information:
http://fespo.ch
http://tauchmesse.ch
http://schoener-tauchen.ch

Golden Dolphin Moskow

February 18-22
Booth number: tba

Address:
Gostiny Dvor
Moscow 103012, Ilyinka str. 4, Russia

More Information:
http://goldendolphin.ru

The week after we had two more fantastic encounters with these 4 animals. Being smart as they are, they seem to become more familiar with the boat and these strange humans in rubber suits watching them from every angle possible. Everytime the encounters took place between the South-East part and the South tip of the island. Sometimes we would meet 3 of them as one of the adults was off hunting or doing whatever it felt necessary to do.
In addition to the Orcas, we had this pod of roughly 100 spinner dolphins again showing up between Manta Ray Bay Resort and the south tip of the island. While this species of dolphin is not really inquisitive, I had a few chances to photograph them.

Orca Update #2:
The Orcas (and the spinners) are still around, and despite of the rough sea we had another great meeting with these gentle giants. Actually this was the fifth day with Orcas. Judging from what fishermen told us, they are already here for almost six weeks now. New citizens of Yap? Conditions seem to become harsh, but on the other hand the four whales became really playful. Actually they were coming so close to the boat that we all got wet from the splashing of their black & white fins. More than once. I guess a certain small group from Switzerland was quite happy that day! Unfortunately, under the surface we were embraced by lack of contrast due to the cloudy weather and the waves swallowing the last beams of light. That truly was a drag because the whales would even come our way, swam upside down and showed a natural behavior that clearly underlined they did not feel uncomfortable at all. Maybe it should have been us who should have felt uncomfortable sharing the water with predators that outgrow a great white shark?! Anyway, I still hope they stay around until conditions improve. And as much as Yap is not your average whale destination – we DO have a resident group of pilot whales though – it is not the first time we had Orcas. If we could only speak Whale!

Wednesday was a day that not only I myself will remember for the rest of my life: After a nice dive in Goofnuw channel with two mantas and a grey shark joining, our second boat brought the news: ORCAS !!! Confirmed by Captain John’s video frames.
We headed down south and eventually say 4 huge dorsal fins sticking out of the water. At the sixth attempt in the water one of the females approached us an swam past just feets below our own feet.
Crystal clear blue water and Orcas – that is something BBC film crews are begging for!
From then on we would see them a few times. Only our approach got… let’s say more professional: Jumping into the water and going after the whales at full fin power obviously did not do the job. You could fin forever (as some red faces indicated), but the animals always were faster even if they did not seem to move at all. We found out that they were in a much better position when we stopped the boat 60 feet in front of the whales and got into the water, hoping that they would not change their direction. Quite often we would see them passing us at 30 feet distance, which they kept as the bull and the cow had a semi-adult and even a calf (approx. 5 feet) with them. Seeking shelter obviously also was their reason for coming to Yap as Orcas normally tend to stay and feed in cooler water.
Does it get any better? Yes, indeed it does!
Following the Orcas on board of the „Silvertip“ the other day, it took us a long while before we realized that one of the fins did not belong to the whales. Once in the water it turned out to be a massive sunfish, the Orca toy of the minute!
Some of us, among them our new whale afficianados “Orca Boy“ Russell and Cecile, followed the whales, others kept track of the sunfish. Unlike the whales, that strange deep sea fish stayed with us for more than 20 minutes so everybody had a chance to shoot pictures.
When our dive center manager Jan tried to lure us into some shark action for the afternoon we all did not even consider going. Too much!  WHAT A DAY!!!
Needless to say what became the attraction for the nocturnal slide show on Mnuw. “Can you show me the Orcas?“, was one of the things you would hear most often, with the casual “Now I hate you even more!“
In order to save some dignity for that sunfish off Yap Caverns: How could anybody expect it to stay while we were circling it like blueprints for predators? Well, it stayed and I’d say that’s not too bad for an animal with a brain of the size of a walnut!