The mysterious and graceful manta ray is a Hawaii celebrity, attracting thousands annually to experience its nightly underwater feeding dance. Honoring the manta ray, Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay will present Malama Hahalua, Manta Ray Week, Sunday
The mysterious and graceful manta ray is a Hawaii celebrity, attracting thousands annually to experience its nightly underwater feeding dance. Honoring the manta ray, Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay will present Malama Hahalua, Manta Ray Week, Sunday through Aug. 22.
This inaugural manta festival promotes conservation while celebrating the first birthday of the North Kona resort’s Manta Learning Center. Check out the schedule of events here.
“Our resident manta rays in Keauhou Bay are a unique, globally recognized icon of the Kona Coast,” said Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay General Manager Matthew Grauso. “We believe it’s our kuleana to support outreach and conservation efforts to protect the manta rays. This is why we established the Manta Learning Center in 2014 to educate our guests about these majestic creatures.”
Throughout the week, Malama Hahalua, will feature award-winning Hawaii outdoor artist and author Patrick Ching, a Manta Ray Instagram contest, dedication of a plaque explaining the manta’s Native Hawaiian significance, interactive activities, art show and manta expert talk story sessions.
Manta Ray Week again sees Sheraton Kona partnering with its co-founder of the Manta Learning Center, Manta Pacific Research Foundation.
“I’m so happy that the Sheraton team gave us the opportunity to build the center about these beautiful marine creatures — right next to one of the best viewing areas in the world from Paakai Point,” said Keller Laros, MPRF founder.
According to the foundation, manta rays are widespread and found in tropical waters worldwide. There are two manta species. The migratory Manta birostris has fins measuring as much as 22 feet across and weighs up to 3,000 pounds. Most commonly seen in Hawaii, the Manta alfredi measures 11 feet and is known in Hawaiian as the hahalua.
Mantas are related to the shark family and have cartilaginous skeleton. Though toothed, large mouthed and fearsome looking, they are gentle giants, only eating phytoplankton and zooplankton. Mantas must swim continuously so that oxygenated water passes over their gills, which also act as food filters. They are known to dive to 1,200 feet.
The Kona mantas according to Laros are “mostly found solitary but are seen in groups of six and the most we’ve ever seen are 45 at one time.”
Featured Manta Ray Week artist Ching, who owns a gallery in Hanalei, Kauai, has professionally been painting Hawaii wildlife since the 1970s. A former U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist, his illustrated book “Honu and Hina,” about the co-existence of a green sea turtle and a monk seal, won the Ka Palapala Pookela for Excellence in Children’s Literature Award from the Hawaii Book Publishers Association.
The manta festival will see Ching come to Kona to learn from cultural experts, dive with mantas and then create three paintings during four days.
“I get really excited by learning about mantas even before I observe and paint,” he said.
Ching encourages interactive participation and often has onlookers help paint.
“I like to get people involved,” he said. “People can see how I do it. I like to get them to join in and feel the paint … I took it as my role and how I could help preserve nature was to get people to care for things they might not see every day.”
Katie Soltas, Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay public relations and social media manager, said she first encountered Ching’s engaging art style at his “Kai Show” at the Waikiki Aquarium. There Ching handed her a brush to help paint.
“I think I painted a small fish and he made it pretty,” she said.
Ching’s paintings will be sold during the week with proceeds benefiting the Manta Pacific Research Foundation.
The MPRF has been instrumental in protecting the manta in Hawaii.
“In 2002, we learned that a growing demand for dried manta gills in Asian markets had led to manta rays being fished aggressively throughout the Pacific,” Laros said. “Manta Pacific Research Foundation then embarked on a journey to protect the rays in Hawaii.”
After years of community outreach and legislative effort, on June 5, 2009, the governor signed into law an act making it illegal to kill or capture manta rays in Hawaii.
Called unforgettable and a-must-see for all Hawaii Islanders, diving with the mantas is “One of the most amazing underwater experiences I’ve ever had,” said Hilo’s Ricardo Zepeda, who received a dive as a birthday present. “I’ll never forget the mantas doing barrel-rolls through the plankton again and again, immediately below me! I couldn’t keep from yelling ‘Wooaaah!’ through my snorkel.”
According to Laros, proactive manta tour outreach began in 1993 and was updated in 2013, when Kona manta operators agreed on stated guidelines. Their first manta rule is observation only. Mantas have a protective mucus coating on their skin so touching can be harmful. Chasing, grabbing or riding mantas disturbs the animals and is not allowed.
Guidelines say an undisturbed water column is necessary for mantas to do their graceful feeding maneuvers, so divers are asked to stay near the bottom while avoiding contact with the coral reef. Snorkelers are advised to float on the surface while keeping legs horizontal. Divers on the bottom are asked to shine lights to the surface to attract plankton while snorkelers shine lights to the bottom. Divers should minimize blowing bubbles if a manta passes overhead.
The manta identification project was started in 1991 by MPRF’s Laros and his wife, Wendy Laros. The concept is that each manta ray has a unique spot pattern on its ventral side. These spot patterns are used to identify individuals. The first manta ray identified nearly 40 years ago was “Lefty.” With a broken left cephalic fin and a unique abdominal spot, “Lefty” for Laros is easy to find. Manta Pacific Research Foundation maintains an ID catalog of mantas both in Kona and throughout Hawaii.
Malama Hahalua culminates Aug. 22 with a sunset silent auction at the resort’s Paakai Point to support MPRF. That evening’s featured speakers Keller Laros and Roxanne Stewart will talk story about manta history, current research and the manta ray’s future in Hawaii.
“We hope that Manta Ray Week will raise significant funds to support the local and global research and education efforts of the Manta Pacific Research Foundation,” said Grauso. “Even if our patrons aren’t ready to dive into Keauhou Bay at night with the mantas, they can easily enjoy their nightly visit from Paakai Point at Rays on the Bay.”
Laros invites manta enthusiast to join MPRF in its identification program. Send manta identification images to mprfmantaid@listserv.mantapacific.org.
