With much gratitude and aloha to John and Bea of Maui Diving and our guide, Zack, I was treated along with some family and friends to a visit with some Mantas:

One of the manta's apparently didn't care for the activity or possible biting of one of the cleaner fish and it suddenly bolted from the reef and flew up into the ocean above doing some great hydrobactics in the process:

Fortunately, It circled back and came in for more cleaning:

I know little about these graceful creatures but I wonder if it didn't have its mouth open above in response to the cleaning or what ever caused it to dart from the reef.

My brother Doug and his daughter, Anna (We got out to the cleaning ground with the aid of electric scooters which can be barly glimpsed in the back ground, sitting in sand):

The manta "hit the brakes" above and settled for some cleaning..

I took about 150 shots and initally of some mantas further away and washed out in the distance since I had no idea how close they might come to us. The still shots don't capture the grace or effectiveness of how these fish can soar and bank about with their wings and other control surfaces.