Fiji Diving - Thorn Tree Forum - Lonely Planet
Dived at Matava, Kandavu, Fiji in 2002 after reading in the LP about a dive site which always had mantas. Was already in Fiji backpacking but before booking the internal flight to Kandavu phoned Matava to confirm the manta story and was told there were some happy divers who had been diving with mantas that day. Booked flight and stayed for one week.
Great place and always always thinking of going back. There is a site that was generally used once per week where I was told they see mantas on 8 to 9 out of every 10 dives. Dived at site Xmas Eve and saw mantas on both dives. The 2nd dive was a re-run of the 1st dive - all 4 divers in the group wanted this rather than an alternate 'non-manta site'. (even though there was the chance of destroying the memory of the 1st dive - by not seeing mantas - it was just too good a dive not to repeat In fact due to work committments didn't dive for a long time after that trip - and I mean a very long time - but the memory of these two dives kept me going.) I think it's sensible to only dive at the site once per week. Guides can 'tweak' diving skills and ensure mantas dont get too much hassle before the trip. Don't know how things have changed over last 5 years! They did say mantas were there all year but best to email to check.
It was a very emotional and humbling dive. The dive site was pretty good without mantas - a lovely swimthrough with glassfish. The mantas swam to us out of the blue and then spent around 30 mins encircling us always at about 10m distance. They were curious to see what was going on and didn't seem at all frightened by the experience. Would recommend a trip - Google Matava should do it.
Fiji Diving - Thorn Tree Forum - Lonely Planet
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