Warning: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is deprecated, use preg_replace_callback instead in ..../includes/class_bbcode.php on line 2958 Flying mantas!
I did when I was a teenager. Dad took me out to an island beach around Clearwater, and there was a girl sailboarding about 100 yards away heading away from us. All of the sudden a manta breached behind her and then disappeared. She never saw it cause I'm sure she would have been spooked.
Obviously quite a site to see because I've never forgotten it. It's wingspan was almost as wide as the board she was on.
MMMmmm that vid looks more like eagle rays to me. Maybe I was just trying to picture a 4 metre wingspan manta gliding above the water like an albatross.
What with the BBC getting ultra-slow-motion shots of great whites and humpbacks breaching, I just thought the blue planet team might have filmed flying mantas too.
I saw a manta backflip in front of the boat on the way back from a dive site at Byron Bay. Only myself and the skipper saw it... but it was an amazing site... and at least I have a witness.
I saw a manta breach while relaxing on the boat in between diving Manta Bowl in Ticao, Masbate (Philippines). I also saw a fisherman race towards the spot in a failed attempt to harpoon it. Imagine my range of emotion from awe to anger.
Lu-Ann G. Fuentes rambles on at http://layas.blogspot.com
"Today isn't any other day, you know." - Lewis Carroll
yes I have seen mantas breach..right off the jetties here but they are small ones 2'-4' across (and I know the difference between stingray/leopard rays so I can say it was a manta)
haven't ever seen a big one breach but my dads says he has so I guess it does happen