I’m on a liveaboard boat anchored a few hundred yards of a paradise-like atoll in the Maldives.  Above me, stars are shining brightly with no light pollution for miles around to dim them out.  I can say with certainty that I’m living the life.  But alas, for me this is still work and not simply vacation.  Once again, Michael AW is generously hosting me on an Ocean Geographic expedition – this time the Manta & Whale shark expedition.  This morning we popped in for a quick dive on a manta cleaning station, where we got up close and personal with as many as six mantas at a time.  I’ve only once before been in the water with a manta, so getting this close to this many of what I consider to be perhaps the most fascinating animals in the ocean was beyond extraordinary.  It gets even better.  Tonight we’ll be pulling off at around midnight to make our way north to Baa atoll, home of Hanifaru lagoon.  Hanifaru was only discovered a few years ago by Guy Stevens, and is now regarded as one of the most significant sites for mantas in the entire world.  In September, currents wash tons of krill into this lagoon which is about the size of a football field, attracting literally hundreds of mantas at a time.  The mantas also have unique behavioral displays in Hanifaru, including chain and cyclone feeding (I’ll let your imagination do the work with those terms).  But while the krill attract mantas, the mantas (and whale sharks) attract tourists.  With the publicity of National Geographic articles, the lagoon as become a bucket list item for many divers.  And with six luxury resorts on nearby islands in the atoll, the tourists aren’t only limited to experienced divers.  As many as 150 people can be crammed into this small lagoon to witness the extraordinary manta aggregation.  But much like the Sardine Run, this event is not by any means guaranteed.  On a day when only ten or fifteen mantas arrive, there are still masses of tourists waiting for their picture perfect moment, which means about fifteen tourists per animal.  Scientists who first observed the lagoon and are now studying the aggregation fear that such high pressures from tourism could alter the mantas’ feeding behavior which could have a significant impact on their population.  Indeed, even this morning while diving on the cleaning station I began to wonder if ten of us crowding these six animals while they were essentially trying to take a shower was at all justified?  Just before we jumped in their were two additional full boats of tourists, so these mantas were being viewed basically non-stop throughout the day.  Even I was guilty of swimming a bit to close to capture the perfect shot.  The arguments for ecotourism no doubt have validity – it’s better these animals have to put up with humans appreciating them than be caught and chopped up for dinner, but in my mind ecotourism definitely needs boundaries.  Tomorrow I’ll get to see for myself how the benefits and costs of ecotourism contrast in this unique situation.  That is, if the mantas decide to join us at all!

Photos to come (in droves).