Manta Pacific Research Foundation

Maui Manta Ray Identification Project

Comments:On July 11, 2015, my two sons Keaton,Mitch,and I were out diving Honolua Bay. It was approximately 3:30 pm when we arrived out at some cleaning stations on the North side of the bay in approximately 22 to 25 feet of water. Upon arrival at this location there were two Manta Rays being cleaned when we approached. The two of them spent an estimated 15 minutes hanging out with us there at the cleaning stations. Our best estimate of size is approximately 10-12 foot wing span, on both rays, they seemed to be pretty big to us!
We were able to get several pictures and some video footage of the encounter and I will be attaching some additional photos to this as well. At the time we hadn't noticed the missing part of the wing on this guy, but you can see there is a significant chunk that is missing on it's left side wing. Because of this characteristic we thought we would like to name him "Laki" which I believe means lucky! Given the size of the missing chunk, thinking that perhaps he escaped an encounter with a shark, he seemed to be Laki, and I know that we count ourselves lucky to have had the privilege to have met him and his partner and spend some quality time observing their spa time!