A giant manta ray (Manta birostris: 220 cms.). I was fortunate to join a pair of these manta rays about fifteen minutes into a dive and had enough air to stay with them for over half an hour, while they circled around me feeding on plankton. Awesome, in the real sense of the word, describes appropriately a lengthy and close encounter with such large and magnificent animals. The plankton bloom resulted in photography at a distance from the subject being problematic, but I was able to take a number of close-up pictures as they passed about one metre above me. Near crystal bay, Bali, Indonesia.

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Size: 5171px × 3210px
Location: Near crystal bay, Bali, Indonesia
Photo credit: © Terence Dormer / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: adventure, bali, big, birostris, close, creation, day-time, diving, elasmobranch, encounter, feeder, fish, giant, manta, natural, plankton, ray, scuba, selection, trd5143, underwater