Dive Review of Manta Ray Bay in
Micronesia/Yap, Micronesia

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Manta Ray Bay: "Yap - outside of manta mating season, May 2016", May, 2016, by Timothy C Barden, MA, US ( Sr. Reviewer 7 reports with 9 Helpful votes). Report 9106.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Manta Ray Bay is a gorgeous hotel with a lot of history. Save some time for a land tour to see all the stone money and villages. Maybe your guide will show you the proper way to chew betel nut. I did some research when I got back. The pinch of ground coral appears to neutralize the acid in the nut, releasing some alkaloids similar to nicotine which gives the euphoria. the leaf is for flavor. The rooms are spacious and clean, each with a different fish motif. The 100-yearold junk converted to a restaurant is pretty cool. The bar topside was great during nice weather, but the covered dining area just below had plenty of windows for a nice breeze too. Not a huge food selection but okay with good-sized portions and not outrageously priced. May is changeover season weather-wise. As expected, it was partly cloudy with brief showers. I thought the water would be a little warmer. I was expecting 80+ deg, but 78 deg needs a thin wetsuit or shorty. Very good dive facilities and attentive staff. They made it a point to learn my name much faster than I was able to learn theirs. Great dip tanks for cameras and dive gear. My advice: tip after each dive outing. The crew seem to move around and might be hard to find if you wait. They were great about setting up & rinsing gear. No problem with the nitrox and short fills, but they could be a little better about record keeping. I had to hunt for a nitrox tester and there wasn't a place to log it. The diving was quite good, healthy reefs, plenty of fish and all that, but I was keen to see mantas. We did spot a few in the channel from a distance, but got skunked on multiple visits to the cleaning station. An unlucky prevailing wind kept us away from some of the dive sites and other likely manta spotting options. It also made the channel and cleaning station a bit murky. Several specialty dives were offered, i.e. shark, night and mandarin fish. I don't know about the other two, but the mandarin fish is a don't miss! It's a unique, beautiful little fish and the guides know right where they are. Most of our dives were manta-hunts, so I can't say too much about the general diving in Yap, but the few other dives we did were very good - probably similar to Palau except, of course, for the exceptional reef hook diving in Palau. If returning to Yap, I'd make sure to hit manta mating season, Oct.-Feb. Outside of that window, it seems pretty hit and miss.
Websites	Manta Ray Bay
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	All over the Carobbeam. Truk
Closest Airport	Colonia	Getting There	Delta direct from Tokyo avoids going through Guam
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	78-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-80 Ft/ 12-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Large, lighted dip tank for cameras. Large camera table.

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Dive Review of Manta Ray Bay in Micronesia/Yap, Micronesia

Manta Ray Bay: "Yap - outside of manta mating season, May 2016", May, 2016,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Manta Ray Bay in
Micronesia/Yap, Micronesia