Whalesharks and Mantas in Mozambique

Hi,

for those of you who are interested in a tour off the beaten tracks I have written

a few lines about this remote destination.

Bottom line: VERY good chance to see whalesharks and mantas! But a few

drawbacks - so decide for yourself if it is worth the cost and effort.

The reports and some photos (taken with a Nikonos RS and unfortunately

scanned with a low-end scanner only) can be found at

http://www.dive-images.de or directly at

http://www.dive-images.de/moz_2006/index.htm

Regards,

Joerg

Hey Joerg

Great pics there mate.

Looks abit like here...well underwater anyhow

Were there lots of Whale Sharks? and did you use a plane to spot them?

Cheers

Wags

Amazing pics - can't believe the size of that whale shark.

In comparison the ones we saw in Utila Honduras were babies )

Check out my vid on www.myspace.com/shurford

Laterz!

Great report, your frames well deserve a better scanner.

There is a small chance I'll be in that area for wok in the next menthes and I'm thinking of Tofo so I have few questions:

- What about sessions there, the better the worst (weather, visibility, currents, animals)

- Do you know the dive's prices there more o less?

- would you recommended to go there by myself without organized tour?

And one recommendation: for situation when there no rinse tanks I have cooler soft bag that I always carry with me, its uses for transfer the gear to / from the boat and can be used as rinse tanks also.

Hi Wegs and Arnon,

no, they do not use planes. They mount a high seat on one of their RIBs.

At the time we were there they saw one to four whalesharks on each of their 2-hour-"Ocean Safaris".

Peak whaleshark season is from late November to May, although they(!) say the whalsharks can be found all year round. Sometimes strong (and I mean strong) currents and some surge - it is the Indian Ocean. Visibility not too good, lots of plankton, but that is what attracts the whalesharks and the mantas.

I do not know the dive prices, we had a package ex Jo´burg. On my web site you can find a trip report with a link to the dive center.

If you take a flight to Inhambane it should be no problem to go on yourself, but I doubt it is cheaper than to have the trip arranged by a south african tour operator. If you want to go by car from South Africa the problem is that -as far as Iknow- you are not allowed to leaveSouth Africa in a rented car. The roads in Moz. are good, but it is a very long trip.

Greetings,

Jock

Check, www.mozdivers.com this is a verry good organisation!

I been to Mozambique and Tofo 2 times in the last year the first time whe organised everthing ourselve and drive whit a car from JHB to Tofo etc.

There i meet the owner of Mozdivers and saw how they work i went back 8 months later with a group of 8 divers everthing organised by them and it was perfect!

You can do it yoursels also but believe me it is not cheaper! so it depends what you like the most.

Whalesharks are not so big between 4 and 7m i have seen really allot of them i was there the first time in March and the second time in November after 2 days of seeing whalesharks on the surface when we where going and coming back from the divespot whe where not intrested enymore! how menny times can you jump in? it sound strange but if you see every 5 min a whaleshark (or less!) and you have jumped around 20 times in the water and sometimes they leave instantly but other times they stayed around for so long whe where intrested!

1 of the last days whe where going to the divespot and whe seen 12 whalesharks togheter! OK then i jumped in again :-) that was imazing like a feeding frenzy there was realy a cloud of Plankton and the vis was only about 10 to 15 m and under water swim from 1 to the other! i have shot's whit 3 whalesharks togheter in a vis that is not more then 15m!!!!

So the whalesharks are cool but believe me the Manta's in Tofo are Imazing, they are all about 5 a 6 m! and on the cleening stations you so menny togheter!

If you need more information just ask! you can see on my website some videoclips from my first visit there.

Also remember that Mozambique is a malarial zone. Tofo/Ilhambane are nice areas for both though.

In Sodwana, you get the whalesharks too and it's a bit more civilized base. But the Manta Reef mantas in Moz are pretty nice but viz isn't always that great there.

Further north of Ilhambane is Pemba and the Lazarus banks, where sharks and big fish linger.