Doug Perrine Discovers Saipan’s Eagle Rays
Doug Perrine of SeaPics.com blogs while on his trip to Saipan, one of the few places in the world reputed to have regularly-occurring and approachable schools of spotted eagle rays. Stay tuned for more of Doug’s updates!
Spotted eagle rays, Aetobatus narinari, are a joy to watch, flitting about tropical reefs and sand banks like giant aquatic butterflies. The only problem for divers is that they are notorious for being incredibly shy.
However, it was said that the rays in Saipan — a 122 sq km island due east of Manila, situated halfway between Japan and New Guinea in the tropical Western North Pacific — are significantly tolerant, allowing divers to approach for a closer view of these magnificent creatures. FiNS sent me to find out the truth of the matter.
Destination Saipan
Part 1: I arrive in Saipan at 7:50 a.m. after taking Continental’s red-eye from Manila to Guam. A 50-minute hop over to Saipan followed. From the airport, it’s a mere 15 minutes by car to Garapan, the capital of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), which consists of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, plus a dozen or so small islands.
The Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA) has booked me into the beachfront Fiesta Resort & Spa. My room is stunning, with ultra-modern décor and a beach view which resembles the Micronesia of yesteryear. Apparently, though, there is no such thing as a non-smoking room in Saipan!
The view from my balcony shows off the lagoon which fringes the western coast of Saipan, but just outside the barrier reef is what looks like an invading fleet of massive military cargo vessels. Has war broken out?I head down to the multi-ethnic breakfast buffet with an uneasy unsettled feeling. My dive guide, Dale Carhill, meets me for breakfast. Dale is an American expatriate who works part-time for the Speedy Tertle dive shop. The other 70 or so dive shops on Saipan cater primarily to Japanese divers, and a smaller number of Koreans. I gather that “tertle” (with two dots over the ‘e’) is a Russian spelling.
Dale explains that the ships off my balcony (as well as others just out of sight) are “pre-po” or pre-positioned vessels standing by for rapid deployment to almost anywhere in case of need by American military forces. They are loaded with tanks, rockets, missiles, humvees, and all other types of hardware for war. Reaching a depth of six floors below the waterline, they draw way too much water to enter the lagoon, so they stay mostly at anchor just outside the reef, in a constant state of preparedness.
I only have four days to get my photos, so I want to dive eagle rays every day, every dive, and preferably by myself. Naturally that requires a private vessel. Our primary dive site will be a spot in the lagoon known by various names such as “Eagle Ray City”, “Eagle Ray Alley,” “Eagle Ray Valley,” “Eagle Ray Point”, etc. It is a shallow depression in the sandy lagoon floor, at a depth of about 10-12 metres, in front of a small mound with scattered low coral heads that rises up to about seven metres in depth. A current of variable strength typically flows through the “valley” toward the “hill”. Visibility varies from 10 metres to over 30 metres.
From November to March eagle rays gather in the valley, facing away from the hill, and ride the current. I am told that the number of rays present can go up to over a hundred, but it is rare to see more than two dozen. The dive shops have set up rows of rocks in the sand on either side of the valley. Divers are instructed to kneel behind the rocks to observe the rays so as not to disturb them. Dale tells me that swimming out into the valley in front of the rays will most likely cause them all to leave.
As Dale and I approach the site we can see a couple of rays hovering over coral heads on the mound behind the valley, being cleaned by striped cleaner wrasses. Could this cleaning station explain why the rays gather here? If so, why do they only come in winter? One theory is that this is when mating season is. We position ourselves in the “viewing gallery” behind a row of rocks. From this position I can see that there are indeed thirty eagle rays in formation in the centre of the valley.
Apart from Eagle Ray City, there’s Ice Cream, a spectacular coral bommie shaped like a scoop of you-guessed-it, rising from about 26 metres to about six metres on top. It is covered with live corals and houses plenty of fish including soldierfish, white-mouthed morays, butterflyfish, and a large school of striped goatfish that hovers a little bit off the bommie. Eagle rays are reported to hang around the site year-round, but in smaller numbers than at Eagle Ray City.
After a quarter hour a “flock” of about ten rays approaches and passes over the bommie. They hover off in deeper water for a while, and then make another sweep back. I get a shot of one of the rays that comes in to get cleaned, but the main group stays out of camera range. Suddenly one of the other rays shoots in from behind and bites the rear dorsal area of the first one. It’s a mating attempt! The female is almost white on the dorsal side — from scars that I assume are from mating attempts like the one I have just witnessed. It has been a frustrating day — lots of potential, but not much in the way of results. Will I ever get a close shot of a large school of eagle rays?
Stay tuned for Part 2!
Part 2: We head out early, and I get in the water at Eagle Ray City (ERC), well before the regular dive boats. There are only a few rays when I start my dive, but the numbers keep swelling as more show up. One interesting behavior I notice is that some rays occasionally drop down to the bottom and just flop onto the sand, apparently resting. They look like old fedora hats, just lying motionless on the bottom. I have never seen this before. I’ve seen eagle rays feeding on the bottom — their diet consists mostly of molluscs that bury in the sand — but I always thought that they rested while “in flight”, like most sharks.
Ice Cream is busy with divers as usual, but there is a small school of rays hanging out. During breaks between dive groups they come in close to the bommie. I realize that the key is the school of goatfish that hangs out a couple of metres off the west side of the bommie. When the eagle rays approach, these wrasses will dart out into open water in order to intercept and clean them. When the eagle rays are not here, or are hanging back, the cleaner wrasse circulate among the goatfish attempting to clean them, but with very meagre results.
Ice Cream is quite different from ERC. The current neither strong nor from a consistent direction, there is no sand — only coral — and the two species of fish cleaning the rays are different from the ones at ERC. The rays do not stay in formation like they do at ERC, but flock in and out and circle the bommie.
Stay tuned for Part 3!
Part 3: We start the day with an early dive at Eagle Ray City. A lone ray is resting on the bottom near the anchor. In the valley there are only two rays. I wait, and eventually three more show up, but conditions are not so good today.
At Ice Cream, we have exceptional visibility — 40 metres or better — and no current. I get in just as the last divers from the other boat are exiting the water. There are only a couple of rays hanging out, but with patience I am able to get some pretty tight shots when they come in to be cleaned.
Since the dive sites are only about 15 minutes from the dock, we go back to shore for our usual hot lunch. One of the benefits of the Japanese tourist trade is that you can get a nice bento lunch plate with hot miso soup and good fresh sashimi for a really reasonable price.
After lunch we are back at Ice Cream. Still great visibility, but no rays and lots of divers. After a long time in the water, a school of five shows up. After a brief cleaning session they become more aloof. There is still great potential, but we have to be in the harbour well before dark.
Stay tuned for Part 4!
Part 4: We start early again at Eagle Ray City, but after an hour, just three rays have showed up. Visibility is only about 15 metres, and it is dark due to overcast skies. I ask why there are no mooring buoys at this site, and am told that a buoy was actually installed, but was removed after it was discovered that boats were tying up to it and spearing the rays.
We move on to Ice Cream, where the water is both warmer and clearer. There are two eagle rays and two groups of divers. After the divers leave, more rays show up, and soon there are seven hovering a little off the reef, occasionally moving in close enough that the bicolor wrasses will swim out to them. But the rays often shake the cleaner wrasse off as soon as they start to work. I’ve read that some cleaners not only eat parasites, but also take an occasional bite of their clients’ skin or fin.
The rays are more accepting of me on snorkel and I am able to get some shots from above and level with them in open water and on the reef. Suddenly a male darts in and bites a female’s posterior dorsal area. He isn’t letting go, but the female is trying her best to shake him off. I dive down to take pictures. By the time the female shakes herself free, I am out of breath and realizing that 10 metres can sometimes be a long way to the surface!