It’s a dangerous island 😜

have ever and will ever see. It’s unlikely I’ll ever see another again, no matter how much I look.

I guess the moral of the story is something like, keep your eyes open. Keep an open mind. Look for the wonder of the earth everywhere, and appreciate the beauty you find. Travel wide and explore.

see an Ornate ray and Manta on the same dive? The odds seemed astronomical.

But the more I watched my video and compared the animal in it to other ray species, the more convinced I became. The “funny looking eagle ray” I almost didn’t film at all turned out to be one of the most special things I

what I was seeing. Ornate rays aren’t only the rarest species of rays, they’re one of the rarest animals in the world. There have been just about 60 confirmed sightings EVER. So I looked it up, then went back to my video. I watched it over and over trying to disprove it to myself. Surely I didn’t

had only ever seen one, and hadn’t been able to get it on video. I made a mental note to look this creature up when I got back to the hotel, and went back to glowing over my Manta ray sighting. My bad attitude was gone completely.

That evening at the hotel I googled ornate rays and couldn’t believe

ray,” he stated. “It’s an ornate ray.” The other two guides jumped up to us and demanded to see the video too. They watched and rewatched it, while I asked the obvious question “what’s an ornate ray?”

“We call it the unicorn of the sea,” one of the guides said. “It’s the rarest ray.” He told me he

And later on the boat we watched the video I’d captured.

But the boat pilot was curious about my eagle ray sighting. No one else had seen it, and I think he was confused by my description, so I pulled up the video and pressed play. He almost grabbed the phone out of my hands.

“That’s not an eagle

I filmed it, but moved on. A few minutes later, I saw a strange white line moving towards us against the current. I started my GoPro, just in case, and I’m glad I did. It turned, allowing me to see the rest of it: a gorgeous Manta ray, swimming along the wall of coral. We swam after and celebrated

That’s when I saw a light colored ray below me. Based on the shape, I thought it was an eagle ray, even though the color and patterns were wrong. Eagle rays have black backs with pretty white spots. This ray was lighter with dark lines across it. Still, I thought it was just an odd looking eagle.

to stay optimistic - which was a petty way to feel given my surroundings!

We piloted over to an island called Ngerchong, and got in for a wall dive. We would let the current carry us along a beautiful wall of coral and admire the fish. But my mind was on the Mantas, and I stared out into the blue.

answer to Scuba tours or mankind’s longings.

We started day 4 diving at the German Channel, a site famous for Mantas, but conditions were terrible and the visibility extremely limited. No gentle giants emerged from the murk, and we left for another dive site. My hopes were low, and I was struggling

But day 4 of any trip means I wake up with a bad attitude. This one happened because I hadn’t seen Mantas yet, and I desperately wanted to. The conditions weren’t ideal, and July isn’t prime Manta season, but I still wanted to see one. The guides on our boat were doing their best, but Mantas don’t

But since moving to Guam, this place became more accessible. I took diving lessons and took on extra duties at work to afford the trip. I recognize most people on earth will never have the chance to do something remotely as cool as visit Palau, and I’m grateful that I was able to.

Diving in Palau had been a bucket-list destination since I learned about its existence fifteen or so years ago: their environmental protections mean their coral reefs are pristine, and their waters are full of sharks, rays, and other amazing wildlife. But all my life, Palau has been too far away…

Every so often, something happens that knocks me back and reminds me just how lucky I am and how wonderful the world can be. Two weeks ago, one of these events happened, and I’ve thought about it every day since.

At the end of July I was privileged to visit Palau for some scuba diving.