koh bon and the mantas

koh bon, originally uploaded by John Barleycorn.

We did a couple of dives at Koh Bon. I think it was on the second dive that we saw Manta Rays (Gavins wife Fiona took the pictures of them!). It was such a totally surreal and spectacular experience. We had these two huge Mantas swimming around us for 35 minutes! They had big, very dark and friendly eyes. Almost like an elephants eyes. Some times they stopped and looked at me/us. Like ancient aliens. So beautiful and peaceful!
Actually I think we saw a couple of Leopard sharks during the first dive also. One of them swam really close to me. It was also very beautiful. Like small Whale sharks. But the Mantas... wow!!!!!!!!!!
Hard to believe that there are ghosts haunting this beautiful island. No liveaboardboats ever stay for the night here... The Thai crews don't want to piss off the ghosts... Smart move I think. Don't mess with the ghosts!

Sadly we later heard from another liveaboardboat that Burmese fishermen had killed 60 Mantas just to cut their "horns" off. Unfortunately there's a market for dead rare and beautiful animals in China and Japan. I hope the ghosts of Koh Bon haunts and scares the shit out of all these assholes, both consumers, traders and hunters, who are responsible for these horrible killings. It's time to stop this trade for good.