Night Diving with Manta Rays | UnderH2O | PBS Digital Studios

Manta rays are one of nature's most graceful and eerie animals. In Episode 2 of UnderH2O, we go underwater off the Kona Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii -- in the dark of night -- to film these enormous creatures. When conditions are right, manta rays flock to this special area in search of giant mouthfuls of plankton which they scoop up as they spin and loop around the divers.
UnderH2O is a new series from PBS Digital Studios. In it, our team of cameramen will give a behind-the-scenes look at underwater filmmaking and show how we go about capturing images of some nature's most exciting underwater events, creatures, and locations. Please subscribe to our channel for new episodes every other Monday.
And we'll do our best to answer any questions you might have in the comments, so please ask away!

[@JonathanDavisREP]

I work as a dive-master in Kona, and do the manta night dive 5 times a week. This is by far the best footage I have ever seen from diving with the mantas at night! Very impressive!
The mantas seen in the video are named: Captain Kirk, Lefty, Cara, Vicky and Cousteau.
great work guys!

[@miriamgrandauer68]

graceful underwater butterflies :)
had a similar nightdive on the maldives , simply wow **

[@otto0667]

INCREDIBLE. Must watch in 1080p!!

[@astrospacerich]

Stunning Photography and I totally like the way it was interfaced with the marine biology of the species.

[@JonathanDavisREP]

They're very fast swimmers and can bolt pretty fast!

[@nadierasukhraj5623]

Reminds of me of Kona night dives. If you ever need a Vanna White underwater.....

[@independantish]

Did this for real last week!!!! Amazing!!

[@charlottevick]

Great work, Craig. We should get this into the Explore the Ocean layer in Google Earth. As many times as I've been to Kona to work at NELHA, I never had the chance to see this.

[@bruehlt]

absolutely amazing!

[@ryanskare6670]

Always been one of my favorite animals.

[@danextmessiify]

Absolutely brilliant! That's wonderful footage, you're lucky to have seen something as awesome as that. Great video mate.

[@byrdsoutdoors]

This is really cool!

[@adrianadavila35]

i will do this one day ! :)

[@MirageTactics]

What kind of defenses do manta rays have if they can't sting? They font seem to be especially quick to escape either.

[@StigDesign]

Realy Cool(remember Manta Ray from PlayStation1 psx Tech Demo lol). so is it the Sting Ray that is Known for the poison Tail. and Manta Ray is harmless? :D