Why divers come for the Catalinas

The short version: this is your best shot at the Pacific giant manta — and a whole lot more.

The star out here is the Pacific giant manta ray, the largest manta species in the world, with a wingspan wider than most cars are long. They glide in to the cleaning stations around the islands, and when one passes overhead it's the kind of thing divers remember for years. We'll be straight with you, though — mantas are wild animals, not a guarantee. What is reliable is the rest of the cast: white-tip reef sharks tucked under ledges, several kinds of rays, a few species of sea turtle, morays, the occasional sea snake, and walls of fish thick enough to throw shade.

The sites where the mantas show up

There are more than twenty named dive sites out here. These are the ones guests ask for by name.

• The Wall — a steep drop-off on the largest island in the chain. Reliable for white-tips and big schools, and near the end of the dive, out by the point, is where the manta often shows.
• The Point & The Cleaning Station — two of the most dependable manta spots on the archipelago, where the big rays come in to get picked clean by smaller fish.
• South Point / El Jardin — when the mantas are around, South Point is hard to beat.
• East North — a super-shallow, easygoing site that's a favourite for newer divers and relaxed second dives.

Beyond the headliners there's Cupcake, Four Rocks, Sombrero, Dirty Rock, Isla Plata, Rainbow and plenty more. We pick each day's dives around the conditions and what's actually being seen out there — you'll get the run-down in your briefing.

How we dive the Catalinas

Based in Playa Flamingo, we're closer to these islands than just about anyone, so less of your day is spent motoring and more of it is spent underwater. We run the Catalinas as a two-tank or three-tank day on our fast, purpose-built boats — three-tank trips run on enriched air, so you'll need a nitrox certification for those. Every dive gets a proper briefing, and our guides know which sites the mantas have been working lately. Newer diver? The Catalinas are friendly to all levels — if you're not certified yet, ask us about Discover Scuba or your Open Water. After a couple of days here, plenty of divers set their sights on the Bat Islands.