420 Dive Log Australasia OCTOBER 2026

YAP: BEYOND the KINGDOM of MANTAS T here are places you visit and places that stay with you. Yap stays. Text and photos by David Fleetham

These two young girls are in traditional outfits for cultural ceremonies on the island of Yap

And on land, great disks of stone money still stand beside pathways and village houses, some exactly where they have rested for generations. There are easier places to reach. There are busier places. There are certainly places with more nightlife.

I have been coming here for years, often as one of the professional photographers invited to MantaFest at Manta Ray Bay Resort. Like most divers, I first came with manta rays on my mind. Yap has long been called the Kingdom of Mantas, and there are few places where a diver can spend so much time watching these enormous animals at close range.

That is part of the reason to come.

But after enough dives here, I discovered something.

The flight from Guam arrives in the middle of the night. You step from the airplane into warm, heavy air. The airport is small. Beyond it the island is black and quiet.

The mantas are only the beginning.

Yap lies in the western Pacific between Guam and Palau, a remote collection of green islands surrounded by coral reef, mangrove forest and very deep ocean. Narrow channels cut through the mangroves and connect protected lagoons with the sea. Beyond the reef, the bottom falls away into blue water.

Morning changes everything.

Green hills rise behind Colonia. Thick vegetation runs down toward the coast. White fairy terns cross a brilliant sky. The harbor lies still beneath the morning sun and dive boats wait at the dock.

Down there are sharks.

Beyond them is the reef.

On the reef are creatures small enough to disappear behind a finger.

That is where I want to be.

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Dive Log Australasia #420 Oct’ 26

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