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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Tofo location page.
Overview
Reef manta cleaning station 22 km offshore from Tofo. Mantas hover at coral bommies while butterflyfish work them over. Often dived in conjunction with surface time spent searching for whale sharks in the bait-rich waters above.
What you'll see
4 species curated- year-roundReef manta ray
- seasonalWhale sharkPeak: Oct · Nov · Dec · Jan · Feb · Mar
- year-roundPotato bass
- rareBull shark
Sightings evidence
1 record on file- high confidenceReef manta ray
- Last confirmed
- Mar 2026
- Recent records
- 65 within 25 km
Sources & methodology
How we summarise this
We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.
Sources
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
- Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
- iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
- Manta Trust IDtheManta Database — Manta Trust
- OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
- WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
- FishBase — FishBase Consortium
- Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
- REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation
Conditions
| Month | Water | Visibility | Current |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 26–28 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Feb | 26–28 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Mar | 26–28 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Apr | 25–27 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| May | 23–25 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Jun | 22–24 °C | 10–20 m | moderate |
| Jul | 21–23 °C | 10–20 m | moderate |
| Aug | 21–23 °C | 10–20 m | moderate |
| Sep | 22–24 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Oct | 24–26 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Nov | 25–27 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
| Dec | 26–28 °C | 15–25 m | moderate |
Season calendar
Peak season highlighted · current month outlined
Gear for this site
Beyond the basic kit- 5mm wetsuit — Mozambique winter (Jun-Aug) drops water below 23C.
- SMB — Surface intervals over deep water mean strong drift potential.
Next step
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