Take a journey through the wonders of Yap. From stone money, to cultural dances, to Yapese "highways", to traditional fishing and anciant mariners, you will be sure to experince the richness of Yapese life.
Yap is belived to have been settled by a seafaring people from the area today known as eastern Indonesia and the southern part of the Philippines sometime around 1500 B.C.
Yap is probably best known among non-divers as the Land of Stone Money. Up to 12 feet in diameter these massive stone discs rate, without competition, as the largest coins in the world.
The Yapese have managed to maintain their ancient culture better than anywhere else in Micronesia. The heritage and traditions of the Yapese people are carefully nourished to preserve the Micronesian way of life.
Bill Acker, founder of the Manta Ray Bay Resort and Yap Divers, is proud to share his love of Yap and diving with guests from all over the world. A resident of Yap for almost 30 years, Bill is eminently qualified to make your Micronesian dive experience one that you’ll never forget. Bill and his family own and operate the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers.
Welcome to The Manta Ray Bay Resort. We are a small, 4-star resort located on the wonderful island of Yap in Micronesia. Enjoy your stay in our luxurious, individually themed rooms. Delight your tastes at our floating restaurant, the Mnuw Restaurant and Bar. Dive in to adventure with our expericed dive team. Relax into bliss at our Taro Leaf Spa. Welcome to paradise.
Our resort offers many different package and activities for everyone to enjoy the wonders of Yap. From our hotel & diving packages to island tours to kayak adventures to spa treatments, our resort offers packages individually tailored to you.
There are many special times to visit Yap and the Manta Ray Bay Resort, like Yap Day, MantaFest, and during the manta ray mating season. Plus, we have partnered with the best resort operators and vessels in the region to offer truly unique and luxurious experiences.
The Mnuw is the most unique restaurant and bar in Micronesia if not the world. She is a 170ft (55m) Phinisi schooner from Indonesia with 3 dining decks, 2 bars and her kitchen all on board.
The Manta Ray Bay Resort was built FOR divers, BY divers. Our harborside dive center, Yap Divers, has everything you’d expect from a PADI 5-star facility and SSI Platinum Dive Center, and so much more. Yap Divers is a full-service facility with modern boats, rental gear, dive shop, camera bays, gear rinse and storage.
The Taro Leaf Spa takes the best of everything that is Yapese to bring you an experience that will, relax, energize, invigorate, revitalize and harmonize you.
Come experience all that Yap has to offer. From exclusive, world-class diving to vibrant mangroves to pristine beaches to a fascinating history to a rich, anciant culture, Yap truly is a wonder to behold.
Serving only 1,000 divers a year, we offer our guests crowd-free dive sites and VIP service. Yap has a resident population of manta rays and several shallow cleaning stations where divers can see mantas year-round. And, Yap is more than just mantas! We have great blue water diving, shark diving, wall diving, critter diving, black water diving and large schools of big game fish!
Among the mangroves you will go were none can go but by kayak. There are no roads, no way to bring a powered boat in and no habitation, there is but you and nature. This is the perfect way to explore one of the few ecosystems on this planet that remains untouched by man.
Imagine looking over the side of the boat into ink blue water so clear that you can see fish swimming 100 feet below you. Imagine being on a boat 20 yards from the edge of the reef, looking across the turquoise colored lagoon to the verdant, green tropical island in the background. You cast your lure into the surf breaking on the edge of the reef and then boom – a huge black Giant Trevally comes from the surf line and attacks your wooden bait. The fight is on.
The Manta Ray Bay Hotel’s Concierge staff offer a complete range of land tours specifically designed to showcase the unique island culture of Yap. Everything from the famous stone money and stone money banks, to traditional thatched roof men’s houses, centuries old stone paths which are still used to connect the various villages, to the flora and fauna.
On Yap you can spend all day on a private beach with your partner, dive buddy or group in the village with no one else around. We arrange private beach trips, group events, parties and BBQs.
The Taro Leaf Spa takes the best of everything that is Yapese to bring you an experience that will, relax, energize, invigorate, revitalize and harmonize you.
Here you will find out the latest goings on in Yap, photo galleries of visiting pros and visitors alike. Plus, a library of wallpapers for your desktop and mobile devices.
Swimming with manta rays is a life-changing experience for many divers. Yap's Manta Ray Bay is one of the world's premier destinations for these encounters, providing scuba divers and snorkelers a rare chance to experience manta rays in their natural habitat.
Throughout the years we have been honored to host several top professional photographers and videographers. From Paul Tzimoulis to William "Bill" Macdonald. From Marty Snyderman to Andy Schumacher. From David Doubilet to David Fleetham plus many, many more. We are very honored to be able to share some of the images captured in Yap by these great friends.
Imagine the thousands of divers who have visited us over the years. Now imagine the wonderful memories they captured via photographs both above and below water. We want to share these with you and ask you to consider posting your memories of Yap and the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers.
We know it can be a daunting task to book travel to Yap with diffeent time zones, the International Date Line and often confusing flight schedules. Let us help you make getting to Yap a warm, tropical breeze. Ask Bill!
Here you will find the latest information about the latest on flights to Yap. There are both international and regional carries currently servicing the island. And, for flight help you can always Ask Bill!
Manta Mania 2016 brought in a big group of enthusiastic divers to learn about mantas, dive with mantas and interact these creatures with the world’s leading manta scientists.
The action was from breakfast until well after happy hour – our daily schedule packed in several dives, a classroom workshop and evening presentations at the Crow’s Nest.
The Diving
The mantas did not disappoint.
Our interactions were with single males, pregnant females, courting females and divers were engulfed in dancing mantas.
We got hands-on with the citizen-science and marine conservation by participating in the study of these animals through photo ID.
During the workshops we learned how to identify gender, maturity and condition of these animals – as it turns out, Yap’s resident ray research shows healthy animals of all ages and strong reproductive behavior.
Some of our scientists commented on how much mating behavior there is to see here during this time of year.
After learning about manta behavior it makes the diving a lot more interesting, especially when we can identify what’s going on when we’re out on the reef with these animals.
Natural selection puts on a unique show here in Yap as the females make their prospect mates earn the chance to pair with her.
The science theme during the week is also very sharky – did you know that rays are basically flat sharks? There’s your manta fact for the day, rays are biologically closer relatives to sharks than any other animal. Vertigo was our blue water laboratory where we can size up some reef sharks and learn about this marine community as well.
Another breeding cycle happens the same time of year – right now cuttlefish are seen in pairs and groups on almost every reef dive.
Mating behavior typically means that the animals care less about a diver’s presence – the result is super close proximity of interactions… which make for incredible photo ops.
Our Scientists
Our presenting experts for 2016 were Julie Hartup, Guy Stevens, Steve Lindfield and Ben Buchan who introduced themselves, their research and kept the fun factor high throughout the event.
Julie Hartup has been studying Yap mantas for 6 years with Manta Trust and now her new organization, www.micronesianconservation.org with projects throughout the West Pacific. She’s part of the Yap family and started this event with Bill Acker to build a scientific community and put research into action.
Manta Rays, 101
Guy Stevens, founder of www.mantatrust.org, introduced his work with mantas and walked us through the different species in scientific detail.
How to identify the different species, their sizes, geographic range, what they eat, lifespan, various behaviors, including mating with a demonstration using scaled down model mantas… as well as super interesting manta facts that were only learned through satellite tagging.
Steve Lindfield, also a Rolex Scholar, showed us how stereo videography is used to count and size fish, including sharks and mantas while introducing his work and latest project here in Micronesia.
Ben Buchan is the 2016 Australasia Rolex Scholar who is touring the world in the name of academics, conservation and life adventure out of Sydney, Australia.
Ben was professional enough to teach us all how to properly wrangle a shark. We had a shark wrangling video as well as infographics on how NOT to wrangle a shark – clearly, we don’t wrangle manta rays.
Big Animal science and good times.
Our scientists brought their A-game teaching us about our marine environment as well as helping us conserve a resource that we enjoy – these guys also brought the party and showed us all how marine biologists kick it up at the Crow’s Nest.
The divers and scientists pulled their data from the week and presented their findings at the end of the event.
This year at manta mania
• You had 50 interactions
• You saw 30 different mantas
• Of those, 20 were males
• and 10 were females
• 2 females are pregnant
• There were 3 mating trains
• 3 new measurements were recorded
• 1 new manta ray was identified
Citizen Science
We had a special database entry this year, a new manta ID. It’s male and his name is “Hai Ray”, given to him by our guests who shot it’s first photo ID, who also got married on the beach the next day.
After our scientific data presentation of the week’s research, Julie brought out her Yap manta database and presented the new manta ray entry.
Manta Mania is growing up to be one of our best weeks to be here for big animal diving, conservation science and having a tropical vacation party in paradise.
Manta Mania 2017
February 12th – 18th – We are taking reservations for next year’s manta mania where we will have returning guests and scientists as well as two new researchers that will join the party.
Manta Mania