Dancing with giant manta rays = core life memory. 🥹 This moment was on my solo trip to Pohnpei, Micronesia 🇫🇲 on what would become of my favorite dives of my life…. You’ll notice the water looks full of tiny flecks — it isn’t dirty! That’s actually clouds of plankton, through which mantas swoop and glide in slow circles, funneling food into their mouths. Basically I’m swimming in a giant pot of plankton soup. Manta rays are the largest rays in the ocean, reaching wingspans of up to 26 feet (7.9 meters) and weighing over 5,000 pounds. 🤯 They also have the largest brains of any fish and are considered one of the most intelligent in the ocean 🧠 — showing curiosity, problem-solving, even playful behaviors… like I got to witness this day, as 20 of them swam in circles around me for over an hour. Some studies suggest that mantas may even recognize themselves in mirrors, a sign of self-awareness shared by only a few species on Earth. Yet these gentle giants are threatened by overfi...