'So many mantas!'

That was the message at the end of last month from Anne-Marie Kitchen Wheeler, Cruise Director and resident manta expert aboard the dive liveaboard MV Sea Spirit, which is operated by Scuba Tours Worldwide.

"The monsoon seasons are changing and it looks like the SW monsoon is going out with a bang with nutrient upwelling and strong currents bringing large quantities of zooplankton into the shallows," said Anne-Marie, who advises anyone able to book a last-minute trip to the Indian-Ocean archipelago to do so.

"All the zooplankton attracts manta rays and in the past week we have seen mantas feeding every day in the channels along the east sides of the central atolls," she added.

"In some places the mantas were attracted by tiny shrimp-like copepods and in other channels by gelatinous zooplankton and even small jellyfish! We love hungry mantas!"

Special Offers on Scuba Tours Worldwide liveaboards in the Maldives can be seen here