The 1200 + Breathtaking Mantas of Komodo 

Komodo National Park is so well known as being the region where the prehistoric Komodo Dragons can be found, but for the divers among us what we can see underwater is truly breathtaking! Let’s talk more about the Mantas of Komodo and when is the best time to see them!

Komodo National Park is home to healthy, vibrant reefs and hugely diverse marine life, but one of the absolute favourite animals on every divers bucket list are the majestic Mantas of Komodo!!! 

Mantas are a very common sight here in Komodo with a recorded population of over 1200. New individuals are sighted every year thanks to citizen science (which we will tell you a little bit about later). 

Mantas of Komodo fall into different categories of adventurer! Some love to travel long distances and have been noted to spend their lives covering wide expanses of the ocean. Some of the Mantas of Komodo have even been seen as far away as Nusa Penida. That is over 400km away! While others prefer to ‘stay near home’ and spend the majority of their life around Komodo National Park just moving between the different sites in the area.

What are Mantas?

Mantas are part of the Elasmobranch Family – the same as sharks and skates. Sharks have been around for over 500 million years while these “younger” Mantas are believed to have been around for about 5 million years. 

The majestic mantas live in perpetual motion – meaning they always have to keep moving. The heaviest known manta specimen weighed approximately 2 tonnes and due to their physiological make up they are negatively buoyant so if they stop moving they start to sink.

There are currently 2 types of Mantas – the Manta Alfredi or the Reef Manta and the Manta Birostris or Oceanic Manta. 

Although Oceanic Mantas have been seen here in Komodo it is highly unusual. Our main interactions here are with the Reef Mantas! Reef Mantas have an average wing span of 3-4 metres and can be identified by the spot pattern on their belly.

The underside of mantas are white with navy / black spots. These spots are unique to every individual which is why we are able to tell which manta is which and where they move to! If you chat with your dive guide onboard KLM Eliya they will be able to tell you about the different Mantas of Komodo and which ones they see more often than others. Many even have names when they have been adopted. The name is theirs for life.

Manta Matcher is a fantastic online resource where you can upload your images of different manta bellies & the information will be added to the database to help track the different individuals.

The spot patterns on manta bellies are what is used to identify and track individuals. This is why citizen science and photos / videos are so so important. Scientists use this information to identify, track and monitor individuals and populations.

The Best Time for the Mantas of Komodo

We are lucky enough to see mantas all year a round here in Komodo, but what many people don’t realise is that the BEST time to see mantas is actually in the quieter months! Low season for visitors is high season for our flappy friends! 

If you really want to increase your chances of seeing these magnificent giants in big numbers the best time to visit is September – April. These months are considered ‘low season’ in Komodo as there are a lot less visitors around. This does mean that the dive sites are a lot quieter and there are less boats around too.

November – March is considered rainy season here and people are often concerned about the weather. The great thing about this region is that it is usually very arid and even in rainy season we do not tend to get the monsoon style rains that are common in other Asian countries. It is more common here for it to rain in the afternoons / evenings and overnight, but still be dry and sunny in the day time. 

This also does mean that at this time of year the visibility in some part of the National Park can be reduced. In the months of July – August underwater visibility can be 30 metres on a good day, but probably averaging around 20 metres. In the low season months visibility at the central sites is usually averaging 10-15 meters and 20 + metres at the Southern sites. 

The reason for the drop in visibility is not just because of the weather conditions, but also because at this time of year the currents running through the region are much more nutrient rich. This means much more plankton and smaller organisms in the water. This may mean visibility is a little reduced for divers, but it does mean there is a lot more food in the water for the mantas of Komodo!! 

It is not uncommon in these months to see more than 20+ mantas on a single dive. Our guests and dive guides have regularly done dives with possibly 50-60 individuals all around them! It gets to the point that there are so many it is simply impossible to keep count!! 

These dives really are incredible moments that will leave you in a state of awe. It is not uncommon for our divers to get to the surface screaming in joy or just simply be quietly in disbelief after one of these epic manta dives!!! 

They can still be seen throughout the rest of the year of course, but November – March really is the very best time to visit for these special animals.

July – September is considered high season in Komodo and during this time we usually get clear conditions with flat seas and great visibility. We dive the Central and Northern dives sites in these months so we visit the famous dive sites such as Crystal Rock, Castle Rock, the Cauldron (aka Shotgun) in the North of the National Park. 

These sites are famous for strong currents, schooling fish, schooling reef sharks and, of course, the occasional manta!!

The younger mantas also seem to enjoy the strong currents of the Cauldron! As divers we will be working hard to hold our position while the majestic mantas will just give small tiny flicks of their fins to maintain there place in the current line.

The Main Manta Dive Sites 

Mantas can be seen at any of the dive sites in Komodo and are quite often seen breaching or jumping out of the water between the months of November – March. 

We regularly encounter mantas at sites such as The Cauldron (aka Shotgun), Tatawa Besar, Tatawa Kecil, Siaba Besar along with others, but there are 3 main dive sites where we can be pretty sure of seeing the mantas of Komodo on an almost daily basis – but it is the ocean so there is no guarantee of course! 

What makes these 3 dive sites so popular for mantas is that they have lots of “cleaning stations” Take a look at our previous blog about mantas if you are not sure what a cleaning station is. 

Mawan – Central Dive Site

Mantas seen here all year around.

Biggest numbers between November – March.

Mawan is a stunning island located in the centre of the National Park and plays host to a number of manta cleaning stations. What makes Mawan special is that the cleaning stations are all relatively shallow. A long reefy plateau extends from the shore line to 26-27 metres before dropping deeper. Cleaning stations can be found at 3 – 6 – 9 – 18 – 22m with the majority of ‘action’ usually happening in the shallower water. It is easy to spend an entire dive here in less than 8m of water while you watch the mantas flying overhead and have the rays of sunshine breaking the surface. It is truly spectacular.

Karang Makassar – Central Dive Site

aka Manta Point – not to be mistaken with Manta Point at Nusa Penida)

This dive site is the longest in the National Park and runs North – South. Manta Point is usually dived as a drift dive and we start at either the Southern end or the Northern end depending on the direction the current is running. We regularly drift 3km during this dive. 

The topography of this dive site is very unusual with many divers describing it as a moon-scape! The rubble bottom is dotted with cleaning stations where the mantas will come into clean. Some of our guests most favourite dive site is Manta Point for the shear numbers of mantas you can see here!! You can be watching 2 at a cleaning station and suddenly you will see a flash in the corner of your eye as 4 more fly past! The average depth of Manta Point is 12-13 metres. So again a very shallow dive site making long dives and amazing manta interactions easy! 

Manta Alley – Southern Dive Site

Mantas seen here all more often in the summer months of June – September.

Biggest numbers July – September.

Manta Ally is similar to Manta Point in that it is a long drift dive. It has a gently sloping rocky bottom that levels out at a sandy area around 20 metres. The cleaning stations here tend to be found in the sandy area so this is a little deeper than the other sites. However the shallower rocky section and small channel is where the mantas tend to feed and hangout while playing in the current!! Manta Alley is famous for the mantas of course, but it does also get quite cold here with temperatures averaging 22-23 degrees whereas the other sites at the is time of year will average 24-26 degrees.

The Mantas of Komodo really are here all year around, but if you really want to maximise your chances of seeing these magical animals in big numbers then the best time to visit is between September & April, with even better chances mid November – mid / end of March.

Not only will you increase your likelihood of seeing the Mantas of Komodo, but there are less boats around, dive sites are quieter and some days you really will feel like you have the Komodo National Park all to yourself!

Scuba Junkie are running a very Special Low Season Promo at the time of writing this blog. From now until 30 April 2025 you can book and pay for any trip onboard KLM Eliya and we will give you a 30% discount on our published prices – YES – 30%!!!!

If you combine KLM Eliya with one of our other locations we can offer you 25% discount on the second location. 

What better time to book your holiday for your next Manta adventure! Get in touch now to find out more about our availability and our low season Mantas of Komodo Promo Deal!

Booking Period: Now until 30 April 2025

Travel Period: 1 November 2025 – 31 March 2026

If you would like to take advantage of our Special Low Season Promo then please get in touch here.