During a dive at Sunset Point, south of Gili Trawangan, we were first greeted by a big gentle green turtle, then a cruising white tip reef shark (they are the usual encounters on this dive site). Following the gentle slow slope of corals to a depth of 13m, a school of Devil Rays surprised us ! They swam leisurely and we managed to observe them for several minutes.
Reluctantly, we left them at 8 m depth and continued our dive admiring the corals and fishes.
Devil Rays have been spotted regularly for over a month at this dive site, however, this was the first time for me to witness 36 Devil Rays at one time.
Devil Rays are also called Mobulas.
Some facts about Devil Rays
There are 8 species in the mobula genus, 6 species of mobula and two species of Manta ray.
Like many marine species including Mantas rays, we know very little about them. To summarize, we know that they exist and that they are classified as endangered.
The two main visible differences between mobula and manta species are :
- size, the devil rays are much smaller,
- the position of the mouth, ventral for devil rays and front for manta rays.
Below a large manta ray sighted at Shark Point, it’s mouth is clearly visible on the front.
That’s it, inspired by the amazing dive with exceptional number of Devil Rays, I begin the blog of our dive center in Gili Trawangan (Indonesia).
