Divers travel to Yap to see mantas, where they
are normally viewed year round. However, local politics
are curtailing the chances of interacting with
them. In March, Amy Adair (Albuquerque, NM)
told Undercurrent that M’il Channel and the primary
manta cleaning station had been closed due to
“some sort of feud” between locals. Dive operators
assured Undercurrent that the closure was temporary
due to a dispute between villagers and a family
claiming to own the area. Andrew Yatilman, manager
of the Yap Visitors Bureau, said they were “working
with the traditional chiefs and the two parties to
resolve the issue.”
Apparently, that dispute has been resolved, but
annually the mantas migrate to a channel on the
other side of the island, called Goofnuw. There, villagers
are demanding monthly access fees, which
dive operators have been unwilling to pay.
In June, subscriber Donald Wehmeyer visited
the Manta Ray Bay Resort with a group from
Underwater Connections in Abilene Texas. Upon
arrival, they were told that Goofnuw channel was
closed and M’il was undivable due to summer
storms. For the first of three dive days, they took
Wehmeyer’s group to a nearby reef, with no mantas.
“It was okay,“ said Wehmeyer, “but it was not why I went to Yap.” The next day one manta hung with
the group for about 45 minutes on the first dive, but
on the second, “we were skunked. That of course is
the chance you take.”
As the proprietor of Underwater Connections,
Curtis Robertson, points out, “It’s not a petting zoo
out there.” But, Robertson and Manta Ray Bay
owner Bill Acker contacted the governor of Yap and
the Yap government paid fees for a one-day
“exploratory” visit to Goofnuw. Robertson made two
75-minute dives with no manta sightings.
Robertson says, “Bill Acker is caught in a
nutcracker.” He believes for any dive operator to give
in to the tribal demands for payoffs are a recipe for
disaster. “Once you pay, there’s no return,” he says.
Yatilman told Undercurrent that the government is
working with the local chiefs to allow the government
to regulate the use of privately owned reefs by imposing
marine recreational fees that would go toward
conservation and management of those areas.
If the fees are used directly to conserve the reefs,
they should be welcomed. We divers spend thousands
of dollars to go to dirt-poor nations. To help
them preserve the purpose of our visits, we should
expect to leave a few dollars behind for the people
who have lived there for a millennium. And, those
who profit from the mantas – the dive operators and
hotels – should make their fair contribution, as well.