12 Jan, 2010

Cameraman Grant Brokensha encounters one of his favourite ocean creatures during a dive at Stringer Reef in South Africa's Sodwana Bay. The manta ray swims leisurely as cleaner wrasse remove parasites from her huge body.

A glassy ocean invited me down to the welcoming reef below. As I entered the water I was thrilled to see a rather unusual visitor to these waters: a manta ray. This has to be one of my favourite oceanic creatures – its huge wingspan and graceful movements inspire awe and serenity. Although mantas (Manta birostris) visit these waters, there is no known reef in Sodwana Bay where a manta sighting is guaranteed.

As I was descending onto the reef on this particular day, I spotted the huge ray from just below the surface. According to recent discoveries, two distinct manta species exist. This one was the slightly smaller, territorial manta, which has home territories but does not cross oceans like its larger cousin. I could tell that this particular individual was a female because I could not see the claspers (male reproductive organs).

Stringer Reef acts as a massive cleaning station and I knew this creature had come here to be cleaned. The fact that I was diving alone on this shallow reef meant that I could keep the impact of my presence to a minimum; the manta remained undisturbed and continued to circle over the cleaning station. The "doctors" of the reef, the tiny bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus), were hard at work removing parasites from her tail region.

It was such an unreal experience to sit on the ocean floor for almost 40 minutes with this magnificent creature. I felt truly blessed that my job allowed me to head out into the ocean and to record amazing experiences such as this one.

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