Dive Review of Manta Ray Bay in
Micronesia/Yap

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Manta Ray Bay : "Over promised and under delivered", Nov, 2024, by Lynn A, MA, US ( 1 report). Report 13265.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	While I have dove in Micronesia a few times, I had not had the pleasure of diving Yap and I was excited to experience this area. We had very rough seas which restricted us to diving just one side of the island. That being said, when the water was clear, the vis was amazing. The Mantas were not cooperating that week which was disappointing considering that Yap is known for their mantas. We went to Mil Channel twice to try to see them and did see one each time in the very murky water. But honestly, I saw much more manta action in Sea of Cortez and Socorro. The highlight of the manta dives were the leaf fish and watching all the parrot fish marking their territory. I don’t think I have seen this much parrot fish action in quite some time. There were wonderful “herds” of bump head parrot fish which was amazing. We went to Vertigo site twice to see sharks. The first time, there were no sharks. There was definitely more shark action the second dive. And the wall itself is pretty amazing and really does give you vertigo! A highlight was the Yap Cavern dive which was beautiful and had a large variety of wild life. I did the Mandarin fish, dusk dive and did see a mandarin fish and did get a photo thanks to our dive master! Obviously, the dive conditions are not under the control of the dive shop, but overall I thought the service and the boats were very disappointing. For our first check out dive, they put 16 divers on our boat and it took approximately 15 mins to get everyone in the water. Those of us who were among the first in, spent all that time bobbing around at the surface. The dive itself was uninspiring. There was nothing there and the viz was 30ft or less. The next day, we were broken up into smaller groups (which was good) but the boat rides were over 30 mins long (which is not a problem on a comfortable boat) but these boats did not have sufficient seating for even 7 divers and we spent the whole time with the tanks banging against our backs. (I had a number of very large bruises on my back from doing this for multiple days). The staff had difficulty keeping the boats operational. One day, a group had engine trouble and returned 2 hrs after everyone else as they also ran out of gas and the boats that went to help them went the wrong way. Our boat had engine problems one day and then the next day the engine completely failed and we switched boats while they continued to work on the engine to give to a later group. They knew there were issues with the engine the day before but there didn’t seem to have been an attempt to remedy this for the next day. (I am sure that the group that got our boat, instead of their original boat were not particularly happy with us). While the staff took care of all our gear, there were times when the weights got separated from the gear and might be on land or on a different boat. While it is good practice to always check your gear before leaving the dock, there were times when we realized some of the weight pockets were missing and it took awhile to find them in amongst all the dive gear from all the boats. The owner told us at the beginning of the week that he would dive with each boat before the week was over; that didn’t happen as he went with another boat who complained about not seeing Mantas. I was told that we would get an e-mail copy of our dive sites when we checked out of the resort and I have yet to receive this after asking by e-mail. (I had the option of getting a hard copy at check out and almost asked for this instead; probably should have). There was no nitrox the whole week. The resort itself was nice and the in-house staff was amazingly welcoming and gracious. The restaurant service was very slow and the menu got a bit boring after a whole week. There are very few places to stay and dive Yap, so I wouldn’t not go if you want to dive Yap but I do think the resort and the operations could do better. Obviously, the wildlife was not cooperating but that is true of all dive sites and one must take one’s chances . This is a long way to travel for mediocre dive service.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Hawaii, Chuuk, Guam, Tahiti, Galapagos, Dominica, Belize, Aruba, Grenada, North Carolina, Palau, Turneffe, Socorro, Sea of Cortez, Bahamas, Cayman, St. Thomas
Closest Airport		Getting There	This is a bit of a Trek from the East Coast of the US. Previously, I had flown to this region from the mainland, to Honolulu to Guam to whichever part of Micronesia I was diving. Going out I could only get there through Norita which is a very, very long flight path. Returning to the US was slightly easier as I could fly from Guam to Honolulu to Denver to Boston and the connections went without a hitch!
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	choppy, surge
Water Temp	86-87°F / 30-31°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-70 Ft/ 9-21 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There were no rinse tanks on the boats for divers to put their cameras in after the dive and so the cameras were parked as safely as possible amongst the tanks. Not a problem for short boat rides but these were longer boat rides and often rough so I was always holding my breath. On land, the dive shop had wonderful carrels for keeping your camera and charging them so I didn't have to take up all the room with my camera gear, much to the relief of my room mate who does not dive with a camera. The cabbage coral were one of the highlights

Subscriber's Comments

By Charles Fenner in TX, US at Dec 11, 2024 06:10 EST

FYI: Sounds like you were there when they had a large number of divers relative to recent history and that affected your experience. The resort is built for a high diver volume but several years ago United made it harder to make the flight connections work for a combined Yap/Palau trip I don't think they get as many divers these days. I have dove with them around 20 days in the two years and the largest dive group I was in was probably 5 people.

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Dive Review of Manta Ray Bay in Micronesia/Yap

Manta Ray Bay : "Over promised and under delivered", Nov, 2024,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Manta Ray Bay in
Micronesia/Yap