USVI-On-Line

For those coming down shortly, there's still lots of tarpon and rays at maho. Husband and I got there about 10 am and immediately saw several rays, some baby sized 3' nose to tail and some bigger along with what I'm assuming are tarpon and lots of fry. We aren't snorkelers (maybe we will go out once during a trip) so don't know fish that well but there were a lot of them. They were probably 3-4' long. and for those non snorkelers like us we were just standing in calf deep water when the rays would come right by. The tarpon were in knee deep water. Lots to see, it was pretty crazy to watch the activity, pelicans were diving everywhere. . Got rained out so didn't stay long but it was beautiful for a while

Enjoy!

Is the 5 ft Manta still cruising up and down the beach? He was a week ago. The water was really stirred up that day we so I couldn't get a good underwater shot of him, He swam right under my friend, who then had to change his shorts. Nearly ran into some folks down the beach. Did get a good view of head and tail. Moved up and down the beach 5-6 times. Couldn't miss it.
That black shape center frame is the manta. So cool


N0000020 by ross_mike40, on Flickr

His smaller cousins were cruising around as well.

2muchsnow wrote:Is the 5 ft Manta still cruising up and down the beach? He was a week ago. The water was really stirred up that day we so I couldn't get a good underwater shot of him, He swam right under my friend, who then had to change his shorts. Nearly ran into some folks down the beach. Did get a good view of head and tail. Moved up and down the beach 5-6 times. Couldn't miss it.
That black shape center frame is the manta. So cool

I can't tell from your picture, but is there any chance that it is an eagle ray, as opposed to a manta? Eagles are much less rare in the caribbean, and there was an eagle cruising the shoreline like you describe, when we were there.

I'm not implying that you didn't see what you saw or anything like that, but sometimes people do get their spieces confused - heck, liamsaunt, Maggy, and Pickle are always correcting my fish IDs!

When we were on island there was a huge Eagle Ray cruising Maho from left to right. It later appeared out of the dark on our night snorkle, nearly running into me and Mrs Random. There was a sudden warm spot in the water and we sprinted back to the beach.

Augie, my first impression was that it was an eagle, but some snorkellers who followed it for a while comfirmed it. My friend saw it really close and said the head had characteristics of a manta. The 2 feeder things off the head. it was a Sunday and some locals said they had previously seen it as well. Really surprised me that it was a manta.. Still haven't seen an eagle.

I was 11/6 sunday. Would love to know either way. Everyone we talked to claimed it was a manta and not an eagle. Still cool either way.

Another note. The part of the body and tail that I did see didn't have spots like an eagle ray.

Very cool. As different as the heads of the two rays are, it would be hard to get them confused if one knew what they were looking for.

I still haven't ever seen a manta in the wild - guess I'll have to keep looking!

My friend, who it swam under in 4 feet of water, just confirmed no spots and feeder things on the head.

I think I asked this once before, but I'll ask again. If you're on island now, could you kindly swing by Maho and ask all these critters to hang around for another 3 or 4 weeks? It'd be greatly appreciated and would really make my trip!

How about asking them to wait until Feb while you're at it:)Paleeeese?

The snorkelers in our group would love all the Maho activity. Hope it continues!

Roighteous! We'll keep an eye out next week. Only ever seen these guys in open water.

Cheers, RickG

Lovermont wrote:I think I asked this once before, but I'll ask again. If you're on island now, could you kindly swing by Maho and ask all these critters to hang around for another 3 or 4 weeks? It'd be greatly appreciated and would really make my trip!

There might be a bit of a language barrier, but I'll see what I can do

We saw them too a few weeks ago just wading in. Did not see a large ray, but lots of small ones, tons of tarpon and the pelicans were going nuts. Still have to work on my pics before posting, but the water was kind of cloudy so not as great pics, but sooo cool!