German Channel Manta Rays

German Channel manta rays are the reason many divers put Palau on their list. In a channel cut across the reef more than a century ago, reef mantas glide in to be cleaned by small fish while divers wait quietly on the sand nearby.

A channel with a history

German Channel crosses the barrier reef on Palau's southwestern side, linking the lagoon with the open ocean. It was dug during the German colonial period in the early 1900s to give boats a shorter route, and it's named after the people who built it. Over the decades the channel has become a natural highway for tidal water, carrying plankton between the lagoon and the sea, and that food supply is what attracts the mantas.

The channel is a short boat ride from Blue Corner and the Blue Holes, so many day trips combine them: a current dive at Blue Corner in the morning and a calmer manta dive in German Channel after lunch.

How a manta dive works

Mantas come to German Channel for two reasons: to feed on plankton carried by the tide and to visit cleaning stations. A cleaning station is a coral head or rocky outcrop where small wrasse and other cleaner fish pick parasites and dead skin off larger animals. The mantas slow down and hover over these spots, sometimes circling for many minutes.

Your guide will lead the group to a cleaning station and position everyone on bare sand at a respectful distance, usually a few metres back and to the side. From there you simply wait, breathe slowly and let the mantas come to you. On a good day several mantas take turns over the station, some passing just above the divers.

Manta etiquette

• Settle on sand or bare rubble, never on coral, and keep your fins off the bottom so you don't kick up sand.
• Stay low and still. Don't swim up into the water column above the station or block the mantas' approach.
• Never touch, chase or ride a manta. Touching removes the protective mucus on their skin.
• Keep strobes off or low and don't use bright video lights in the mantas' eyes.
• Follow your guide's signals and leave when the group leaves, even if a manta is still circling.

These are the same rules you agree to in the Palau Pledge; the trip planning guide explains it.

When you're most likely to see mantas

Mantas are seen in German Channel year-round, but no sighting is guaranteed. Tides matter most: many operators time the dive for an incoming tide, which brings clearer ocean water and plankton into the channel, and plan around the moon phase when tides are strongest. Some guides find mantas more often in particular months; ask your operator what they've been seeing recently. The guide to the best time to dive Palau covers the weather side.

What else lives in German Channel

Even when the mantas don't show, the channel is a good dive. Grey reef sharks often patrol the channel mouth where it meets the outer reef, and the sandy floor has garden eels, stingrays and coral heads covered in fish. Eagle rays, turtles and schools of jacks pass through, and the outer edge of the channel has healthy hard coral. Conditions are usually gentler than on the outer reef corners, so it suits divers of most levels, with a guide.

Want more big-animal sites? Compare them in the guide to Palau dive sites.