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The Mantas of Yap

 

The Mantas of Yap

If you are lucky, you may have seen a manta or two while diving, but in the waters off the island of Yap, it’s not uncommon to see a dozen or so 12-18ft wide mantas slowly going past you or hovering just above the nearby coral as wrasse and other small fish dart back and forth while cleaning parasites off the mantas. There are over 100 resident mantas in the waters of Yap, and nightly they go out into the deep waters to feed on plankton, and each morning they return to designated coral cleaning stations to remove microscopic parasitic hitch hikers. From December to April the mantas display courtship rituals, breach out of the water, somersault and form underwater multiple member conga lines. The word “manta” derives from the Spanish word for blanket, and when a manta gently moves though the waters a few feet above you, the cover is large, wide, and alive. This is just one of the scenarios that plays out daily when you dive Mi’l Channel (Manta Ray Bay or Manta Ridge) or at Goofnuw Channel (Valley of the Rays).

Now, to find Yap on a map, place the tip of your index finger on Hawaii, next place the tip of your middle finger on Guam. Now lift your index finger off Hawaii and rotate it southeast of Guam by about 500 miles and you just found Yap. In reality it is just “plane” easier to take United Airlines on this island hopping adventure.

Although the Indonesians on Yap proper and the Polynesians on the outer islands have been living on Yap for some 3,000 years, it took a European explorer from Portugal in 1525 to discover the Islands. The local Islanders called themselves Wa’ab and with great cultural sensitivity possessed only by Europeans in those days the Islands were promptly called Yap and the people Yapese. Yap by the way means, “canoe paddle” in Wa’ab.

To make history short, in 1886 Pope Leo XII gave Yap to Spain and three years later Spain sold Yap to Germany who had to give guardianship to the Japanese in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Japanese built a lighthouse and later used Yap as a stationary aircraft carrier until the Americans in WWII bombed them heavily. Wrecks of Japanese Zero Fighters, Suisei dive-bombers, Gekko night fighters, Ginga bombers, L2D2 transport planes, American B-24’s, Hellcats, Helldivers, Corsairs, and Avengers can still be seen on shore as well as underwater.

Yap is nine degrees north of the equator and part of the Federated States of Micronesia, which also includes Truk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. Yap is comprised of four volcanic islands, Yap Proper, Maap, Tomil-Gagil, and Rumung, which volcanically lifted up

from the Philippine Sea Plate. Yap also consists of some 130 other atolls and islets that extend some 600 miles. The State of Yap covers 118.9 sq miles total, with a landmass of 38.7 sq miles. One of the volcanic atolls Ulithi, for seven months during WWII was secretly home to the world’s fourth largest Naval base. The 553ft long USS Mississinewa was sunk here at a depth of 120ft by a Japanese Kaiten, manned suicide, torpedo. Ulithi is also the home of a hawksbill turtle sanctuary.

Yapese are proud of their old cultural ways which include using several sizes of stone money. Some of the stone circular coins are 12ft in diameter and take some 20 men to lift. When they set these stones in groups it is called a bank. They may trade the stones during ceremonies, or during transfer of land, but although the ownership of the stones may change, the location of these giant monetary units tends to be set in stone. Yapese typically went to Pulau’s Rock Island where they quarried and shaped the large stones, then they brought them 280 miles back to Yap using nothing more than canoes made out of mahogany or breadfruit trees and with sails made out of plaited leaves. For navigation they used their masterful knowledge of a group of 32 stars passed down from generation to generation.

Yapese still have a caste system and each village has a tribal hut just for men where skills such as fishing and sailing techniques are learned from elders. On the outer islands men wear loin clothes called “thus” and topless women wear skirts called “lavalavas”. During Yap day, March 1st and 2nd, even local women on Yap Proper, must go topless. On the other hand, showing legs and thighs of women is considered indecent. Yap Day is also a time to see story dances, try local foods, see races up betel nut trees, hear local music, show off coconut husking skills and arts, and to view exquisite craft skills. On non-diving days cultural trips are a great way to meet the locals and see some of these activities.

Back to scuba diving, Bill Acker first came to Yap in 1976 as a Peace Corps volunteer and within a few years began Yap Divers. He and his family now own and operate Manta Ray Bay Resort. Each of the rooms comes complete with modern conveniences and beautifully decorated marine themes from nudibranchs, sharks, fish, squids, or stingrays. Rooms with Ocean views, private plunge pools, stone showers, or a private rooftop jacuzzi are very popular. Guests can swim in the main pool with mantas painted on the bottom. You can eat, dine, drink, or even watch open-air movies on a permanently moored 110-year-old 170ft long Phinisi schooner from Indonesia called the MV Mnuw. At the Nautical Weaver Bar on the bridge deck or at the Crow’s Nest Bar you can delight in the fresh taste of Hammerhead Amber or Manta Gold microbrews made right at the resort under the name: Stone Money Brewing Company. On the main deck is the Manta Ray Bistro known as the island’s finest restaurant. Manta Ray Bay Resort is also home of YAP divers and the Taro Leaf Spa.

Yap Divers has eight boats of various sizes to take you to Rainbow Reef where 30-40 mandarin fish perform romance rituals daily. At Vertigo, steep ledges and free handouts ensure sharks of all types such black tips, silky, gray reef, white tip, black tips, will show up. Scalloped hammerheads, nurse, leopard, zebra, and whale sharks are often spotted around some 50 other known dive sites. Yap Caverns is a must do for any diver that loves caves and swim throughs.

From Hunter’s Bank Seamount, a sunken island, 17 miles North of Yap to 15 miles east at Yap Trench that descends down 28,000ft you have a chance to see coral cabbage patches, torpedoes, machineguns, and other military artifacts, schools of large humphead wrasse, bluefin trevelly, giant trevelly, yellowfin, skipjack, wahoo, mahi-mahi, barracuda, red snapper, and grouper. Dolphins, pilot whales, and even Orcas whales pass by Yap.

So if you would like to dive a 8,243sq mile manta ray preserve, view some 200 soft and hard coral species, see some military war relics, observe or take images of numerous small to pelagic fish, snorkel with small jellyfish and nudibranchs, do some game fishing, kayak around mangrove lined canals, paddle to secluded beaches, or just do some incredible scuba diving with over 100ft of visibility, then you may wish to spend some time on an island called Yap.

For more information on exclusive dive travel offers, competitive airfare, and how you can visit Yap Divers and Manta Ray Bay Resort, Click Here

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DiveGlide

DiveGlide…Exciting and Fun!

DiveGlide is the latest device to get people hooked on water sports. It basically looks like a giant egg with detachable wings and a metal bar to hold on to. Inside the partly opened shell compartment 50lbs of weight and two air cylinders are placed. By pulling on a ball shaped knob you can add up to 250lbs of positive buoyancy lift inside the shell to rise towards the surface. To descend, all you have to do is tilt the front end down and air bubbles escape out the back end opening and you are gently pulled forward and downward. It takes a little training to master how to ascend and descend and once you’ve practiced a little, you feel like you are gliding through the water like a conventional glider does in air.

Glenn Faires of Golden Rock Dive Center invented Dive Glide in St. Eustatius (Statia). He has been perfecting DiveGlide for over 7 years. The most recent version is 30% lighter than the original model and it can be shipped just about anywhere in the world as it only weighs less than 32lbs; full production models may eventually weigh as little as 25lbs without mounted weights and tanks.

Just like surfing, snowboarding, or skiing, you use your muscles to choose a course and propel yourself forward. What makes DiveGlide so great is that for some adventurers, gliding under water gives participants a chance to dive downward and get a glimpse of colorful creatures and tropical reefs. In this respect, DiveGlide used by snorkelers, can act as a gateway step towards a desire to use DiveGlide while on scuba. So a trip spent gliding underwater could lead to another certified diver. This is one of many reasons why DiveGlide could have such a powerful effect on the world of scuba. As more resorts make DiveGlide available as one of their water related rental products, it will be interesting to see how much the need for local scuba diving instruction is increased. With an increased number of vacationers becoming certified and divegliding, the number of people they tell how much fun they had will expand and therefore the number of new vacationers desiring to try DiveGlide will increase too.

Here in the Scuba dive industry we are constantly reminded about the need to bring in young new divers to our sport. The more opportunities young people have to enjoy the water and related water sports, the more these young aquatic oriented adventurers may gravitate towards scuba diving activities whether it be a discovery scuba diving course or a full open water course. With this in mind, it is just a matter of time before a diver will be able to earn an Underwater Photography DiveGlide scuba certification or a Night DiveGlide scuba patch. Perhaps these courses won’t be available right away, but that all depends on how quickly resorts and other water destinations make DiveGlide available for beach enthusiasts from all walks of life.

Now, we are not saying that DiveGlide is the only solution to bringing new people into the scuba world. We think it is just one of many activities that can go hand in hand with scuba diving sport activities. If having so many other different land locked outdoor activities to choose from helps keep some potential people from ever trying scuba diving, then it’s only natural that having as many sports as possible that funnel interest back towards the water and Scuba diving can only be a good thing for the overall scuba industry.

On the other side of the coin though, gliding underwater like a giant manta ray and playing with the buoyancy properties of bubbles might be the only activity that some divers in the future will choose to do. You don’t need to kick with your fins or paddle with your arms, all you have to do is gently adjust the position of your body and the angle of your DiveGlide and you are free to fly underwater wherever you want to go and this makes DiveGlide just too much fun not to try.

For more information and an opportunity to use the Dive Glide, email [email protected] . You can also visit the DiveGlide Facebook page, or view some of the YouTube clips and interviews on Dive Glide.

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