Ishigaki

A normal day is a two- or three-tank boat trip out of the main port or one of the smaller west-coast harbours, back alongside by mid-afternoon. Wind decides where the boat goes: in the winter northeasterly the fleet works the sheltered south and west coasts, and in settled weather full-day trips run further out toward Kuroshima, Hatoma and the Iriomote channels. Operators slot the manta dive around the tide and the number of other boats on the site rather than to a fixed hour.

Sekisei Lagoon gives the area a soft, spread-out character: coral heads standing on sand, gentle slopes and rubble flats rather than big walls or drop-offs. Bleaching events over the past decade have thinned parts of it, so expect patchy recovery next to healthy thickets. Away from the lagoon there are sand slopes with garden eels and shrimp gobies, fringing reef along the north shore, and silty inshore bays that shops use for macro work and for night dives.

Manta diving here is choreographed. Guides put the group down on sand or rubble a set distance back from the coral heads, and everyone stays low and still while the rays queue above for the cleaner wrasse. Nobody swims at them; exhaled bubbles push them off the station, so buoyancy and a slow breathing rate count for more than any kit you can bring. Depths are modest enough for long bottom times, and the site gets busy on good days, which makes an early or late slot worth asking for.

It suits photographers who can shoot wide in the morning and macro in the afternoon, and it makes a comfortable base for the rest of the Yaeyamas, with Taketomi, Kohama and Iriomote all short ferry rides away for days when the boats stay in. Plan around the calendar: manta sightings peak from April through November, typhoons can erase days between July and September, and midwinter is the least reliable stretch for getting out at all.