Often, a trip to distant places makes us apprehensive about the conditions for hosting. After all, it is common for Brazilians have to spend 25 to 30 hours hopping from plane to plane to get the most coveted destinations in the Pacific, and all we want when we get there , besides diving , is […]

  Rien ne va plus – nichts geht mehr: Heute morgen um 9 Uhr war Abgabetermin für die Bilder.. Viele der Gäste, wie Markus und Julia (im Bild), haben noch bis spät in die Nacht an ihrer Auswahl gearbeitet. Abschließend ging es noch einmal zum tauchen. Nach dem ersten Ausflug im Goofnuw Channel hat Bill […]

Welcome to the final week of Manta Fest. This is how all dive weeks start out at Manta Ray Bay, Bill calls it a “meet the managers meeting”. Here Bill introduces himself and everyone you need to know during your stay here. Tonight he started off with the Pro Presenters of Manta Fest and then […]

Manta Fest is delivering the whole Yap Promise – Mantas in clear water right up in your dome, schooling sharks on the reef, high end macro opportunities, channel strafing and blue water outer reef drift dives. Guest feedback is positive about what they’re seeing in the water and what they’re learning out of it. Today […]

Things are picking up momentum here as we reach the end of the first week. Today we had boats going for Mantas, sharks, macro, reef and channel dives. One of our guests, Sheila, spoke up about wanting to dive with each of the pro’s during the week and today she received her wish – on […]

The weather gods are smiling on Manta Fest, today’s conditions were outstanding. The contestants have all logged about 6 to 10 dives, depending on who’s up for third and fourth tanks in the afternoon. Today we shot wide angle in the morning and guests were heading out with diopters on their macro ports for an […]

We’re officially getting warmed up now. The day started again with an awesome sunrise from the boat dock. I wasn’t the only one out shooting the daybreak – some contestants were swapping lenses and getting their own snaps in while the sky kaledescoped in color before breakfast. This morning I got on Frank’s boat with […]

The resort is hopping with energy and full of new faces, repeat guests and this year’s pro presenters. For the next two weeks you can ride shotgun with me and my Canon and look inside this year’s Manta Fest in and out of the water. Things started off at the bar with a welcome cocktail […]

Yap has 100 miles of reef and claims 38 square miles of land spread out between four main islands. The southern barrier reef walls are home to some of our most spectacular diving in the South Pacific. The first thing that divers encounter is water clarity, it’ll change your perception of what diving is supposed to […]

Shark encounters in Yap are actually more guaranteed than with Manta Rays. You can go to a manta cleaning station and not see a ray, given some conditions – however you can’t go to Vertigo and not see a reef shark. A typical dive at Vertigo means you’ll have anywhere between 10-40 grey and black […]

Conservation through Research, Awareness and Education There is little known about the lives of Manta Rays, but thanks to a handful of people, that is changing. This week we had Julie Hartup on island who is Manta Trust’s Guam-based Micronesia and Marianas Islands project leader. She is working with Mark Deakos Ph.D. with the Hawaii […]

Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers has earned a 2013 TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence. The award recognizes our place as a top-performing resort as reviewed by the travelers on the world’s largest travel website. This is indeed great news and a big motivation to continue to improve. We sincerely appreciate the 98 reviews by […]