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.
Give a big welcome to Kudakwashe “Kuda” Lusinga, Manta Ray Bay Resort’s new head chef, blends Zimbabwean and Yapese flavors with standout dishes like Stuffed Pork and Dovi Chicken. Inspired by his uncle and a passion for cooking, Chef Kuda brings creativity, culture, and fresh ideas to the Mnuw restaurant, delighting guests with innovative cuisine.
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!
We experimented today with the shark calling bottle trick and a box of tuna heads over the infinite blue depths under the reef wall at Big Bend.
The rest of the dive group was hanging above us with cameras in hand. Our plan was to give it 15-20 minutes and turn the show into a drift dive.
The bait was suspended below an overhang at 100 feet in a slight current.
With the bait hanging, Colin got on top of the overhang and started with the bottle.
Just like the other times we tried this, we had instant grey reefs swimming out of the blue towards the noise, as well as a few curious barracuda.
We observed shy wild shark behavior – a bit different than the Vertigo show. These sharks swam out of the depth, investigated us as well as the bait, but showed zero interest in our tuna heads.
Another observation from calling in sharks from the blue is that we’re seeing baby sharks accompany the adults. We don’t see as many baby grey reefs at Vertigo.
With sharks circling below, Colin swam the bait box into the blue and began emptying the cage. While it rained tuna parts, I stayed at depth hoping to see something happen.
After watching bait fish tug at our chum, I decided to save some bottom time for the drift and called it. After all, we were still at Big Bend and this is Yap, there’s plenty of things to see on a blue water dive.
We drifted south in relaxing current and had sharks cruising the wall with us for the remainder of the dive.
When you’re cruising the reef wall at any depth, you can look out to the blue for big things, or look at the reef wall for little ones.
Our drift had sharks, barracuda, tuna, schools of snapper, corral grouper as well as all of the reef fish and critters.
We’ve been seeing big dog tooth tuna hunting the reef wall on just about every blue water dive recently.
After half an hour of drifting south over some of Yap’s most interesting reef formations, it was time to rally at the surface for a debrief, some laughs, hot tea and cake.
We didn’t get to see a Silvertip today, but the dives are fun trying. We all got to get into clear water and redline our computers for an hour while seeing big and small sea life.
We’re not done trying this, I still want to follow up on the Silvertip fish story and this plastic bottle trick. We’ll keep this up until we have sharks on the blog bigger than divers.
M’il Channel to Yap Corner
Our second tank turned into a M’il channel out to Yap corner drift dive with a deco stop over the reef. As we were cruising over the lagoon on the way home we were talking about the next dive. I always throw out a blue water option, I think I said Yap corner and other suggestions came in the form of sea life.
Raj said it best as we setup to roll into the channel, “it’s not about where we dive, it’s about what you see, we want life.”
That’s no problem when splashing into M’il, here is where the whole Yap universe comes together and the potential to see anything exists. Today was no exception, it was a constant stream of sea life as we cruised towards the blue in our small group.
Within several minutes of our drift out, I came around a huge pinacle at the channel bottom with a ball of swirling jacks in the current’s edie. I kicked into the back current and displaced the school of fish with my strobes popping.
About two minutes after the jack swarm, I found myself in a barracuda vortex. The biggest school of ‘cuda I’ve seen in M’il channel circled me as I drifted along.
Other sightings were bumphead parrot fish, reef fish, schools of black snapper, white tip reef sharks and nudibranchs in the reef when you look close.
We drifted all the way back out to the clear blue where we circled up for a safety stop. There were a couple of divers that had to hang there staring at their wrist a little longer than others.
We wrapped up the dive day drifting in the blue under my surface marker during our deco stop… all the way across the channel opening and down the reef and almost to Vertigo before we surfaced.
Everybody was pretty stoked that we tried something different, and the divers were more than satisfied with the wildlife report and visibility. Yap offers a personal dive experience in small groups, they’ll take you and show you whatever you want and get you into the water with exactly what you came for. There’s clear blue water to be had, currents to ride, channels to drift, caverns to swim through, sharks to dive with and some Mantas in the lagoon. Today the group wanted to interact with sea life in the blue and take pictures in clear water.