Snorkelling with a manta ray is an incredible experience and one that many divers treasure and retell.  The Manta Trust know that well managed, sustainable manta tourism can be part of the solution to combating the issue of global manta fisheries, providing many countries and governments with a strong economic incentive to protect these animals.

But manta rays are very sensitive to disturbance and there are times when uncontrolled human interactions have negatively impacted local manta populations, driving them away from important areas where they clean, feed or breed.

To help combat this the Manta Trust have developed some simple Swim with Manta guidelines to show divers and snorkelers how they should behave in the water around manta rays.      

These excellent free resources are available online as a 10-Step PDF Guide and a short educational film, both of which are available in multiple languages, including French, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin.

The How to Swim with Mantas guidelines have been validated by scientific studies, following several years of marine research conducted in the Maldives and provide the Best Practice Code of Conduct for Manta Ray Tourism.   In addition, they include recommendations for tourism operators on how best to approach and depart manta aggregation sites, and how to help their crew manage a manta excursion.

The Manta Trust are also looking for dive and tour operators that are committed to sustainable manta tourism to register on the Swim with Mantas website to gain free access to the multi-media toolkit containing multi-language videos and guides.

Operators who demonstrate their commitment will be added to the growing Operator Wall of Fame – a community of tourism operators showcased for their commitment to manta conservation and sustainable dive and snorkel tourism.

Through this dedicated website, our goal is to equip operators and tourists with the tools and information they need, to make their excursions truly sustainable for the gentle giants we all know and love.

How else can you help manta rays?

There are many ways you can help with manta ray conservation:

• Take part in our IDtheManta ‘citizen science’ project by submitting your photographs or videos showing manta ray spot patterns on their underside: mantatrust/idthemanta
• Adopt-A-Manta and support our research and conservation work – mantatrust.org/adopt-a-manta
• Eat Sustainably sourced seafood – www.mantatrust.org/eat-sustainably

For more information visit the Swim with Mantas website created by The Manta Trust by clicking here.