Martin Clunes Man to Mantas


Martin Clunes seeks to fulfil a burning ambition to swim with one of the sea’s most enormous and enigmatic creatures in ITV1’s new documentary Man to Manta.

Already a qualified diver, Martin’s fascination for the underwater world has been fuelled by family holidays to the Maldives. Like many divers his quest has been to see a giant manta ray, one of the most iconic species on the planet.

In Man to Mantas, Martin sets off to realise his dream. The first port of call is the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean which was once the favourite haunt of manta rays but now sightings are extremely rare.

It has now dubbed ‘stingray city’ and Martin’s introduction to the exotic underwater world comes when he gets to kiss a stingray. Stingrays can be lethal, but here in this tourist spot they have become used to human contact.

His search takes him onto the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta in the USA, which cost $300m to build and covers an area of 20 acres, giving the creatures proper space to live in, and one of only three places in the world able to keep mantas.

The film follows Martin as he plunges into the giant tank, the size of an American football pitch, to swim with mantas, whale sharks, sting rays, hammerheads and giant groupers.

He meets Nandi, a manta which was rescued after getting trapped and injured in nets off the coast of South Africa, and slowly nursed back to health.

Martin travels to Ecuador to meet the world’s foremost expert on manta ray biology, Dr Andrea Marshall and British diving instructor, Mark Harding who established that there are over 300 mantas living in these waters.

They are trying to unravel the mystery of where the manta rays go, by attaching satellite tags. His next port of call is Sri Lanka where mantas are being hunted by fisherman because their gills are now a valuable ingredient in Chinese medicine. He also visits a turtle hatchery, and helps to release baby turtles back into the ocean.

Martin’s dream finally comes true on the last leg of his journey, travelling across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives. In the crystal clear waters of Hanifaru lagoon Martin takes the plunge to swim with 40 feeding mantas.

The director and producer is Dominic Ozanne, the associate producer is Tim Ecott and the executive producers are Philippa Braithwaite and Bill Jones.

A Buffalo Pictures production for ITV1.

Martin Clunes reveals how he overcame his fear of diving to swim with wild manta rays
Martin Clunes had to overcome his fear of being underwater to fulfil a burning ambition to swim with one of the ocean’s most mesmeric and elusive creatures, the manta ray.

“There’s just one creature in the ocean which I’ve always truly wanted to see. The mysterious, magical and elusive manta ray,” Martin explains.

“I’ve been told that hundreds of manta rays gather to feed in a remote corner of the Indian Ocean, and I was desperate to be there to experience it. But before I could do that I had to overcome one of my biggest fears.

“Three years ago I had a bad experience underwater and I’ve been nervous about diving ever since,” says Martin who is a certified scuba diver, after qualifying in Belize about 10 years ago.

“I had a panic attack whilst diving off the coast of Scotland for a documentary about islands.

“I, and everybody else, had underestimated the impact the long break I had had from diving would have on my diving ability and the water was freezing cold and murky.

“The worst thing was, so that I could talk to the camera underwater, I was wearing a goldfish bowl of a mask and a respirator. This goldfish bowl was full of air and it kept lifting up and pulling the whole suit up around my chin in a very disconcerting way.

“I couldn’t regulate my breathing, and I completely freaked, and had to ask one of the safety crew to take me up to the surface. It was horrible.

So the first time Martin had ventured underwater since the incident was when he plunged into a giant tank in a marine park in Atlanta, Georgia to meet Nandi, a rescued manta ray.

“I was full of trepidation and I was very panicky breathing. But I got the hang of it.

Getting to swim underwater with Nandi was a real thrill. It was such a pleasure.

It wasn’t until the end of the trip I got my confidence back and started enjoying diving again.”

Martin admits that during filming he began to question whether he would ever dive again.

“I used to dive a lot but I just got a bit panicky about breathing underwater or not really belonging down there. But I had experts around me and I thought it was good to scare myself, and get these little panics out of my mind, because I had dived in the past and enjoyed it.

“There were times when we were filming I thought ‘I am never going to dive again. I’ll do it for this programme, but never again’. But I don’t think that now. I do feel I have overcome that fear I had now.”

Swimming with Nandi was an amazing experience but didn’t come close to his ultimate ambition - swimming with up to two hundred manta rays in the Indian Ocean.

With his confidence underwater beginning to return Martin couldn’t wait to visit the Maldives, an archipelago of over eleven hundred beautiful islands, where he has enjoyed several family holidays It’s not just a paradise for humans here, it’s a paradise for manta rays too.

Every year, during the monsoon from July to October, the manta rays gather en masse to feed in a tiny bay close to the uninhabited and remote island of Hanifaru.

The abundance of plankton in Hanifaru Bay during the monsoon, makes it the ideal feeding ground for mantas. Somehow with their big brains, they seem to remember the bay and return here each year for a few months.

The government has banned the export of all manta ray products, and in 2009 the waters around Hanifaru itself were declared a marine protected area.Fishing around the island is now forbidden.

Martin went diving every day of their eight day stay in the hope of seeing the enigmatic creatures. But it wasn’t until the final dive he finally realised his ambition.

“It was the tenth day of the tenth month, and the tenth reel of film in the camera. It must have been an omen.The manta rays came so close I could almost touch them. It was amazing. There were about 3 or 4 of them just gliding over us, so close, so unworried by us. I had faith that the mantas wouldn’t hurt me. I had enough people telling me they were completely safe.”

At high tide Martin returned to the bay and was rewarded by seeing 20 mantas, which swam towards him and underneath him as he snorkelled.

“It was manta heaven in there,” he says.

But the undoubted highlight of the whole visit was when he was joined by his wife Philippa and daughter Emily, to go snorkelling together.

“After we’d finished filming and I joined up with my wife and daughter for a family holiday. I did a couple of pleasure dives, so I got my appetite back. It was a really lovely thing to do.

“We returned to Hanifaru, where I had been filming, for a snorkelling safari. We held hands as we snorkelled in a line, and all these manta rays were swimming around us. That was the high spot; to be snorkelling with my family and the mantas.

“There’s just something about manta rays –their big brains maybe or their kindly eyes - which makes me feel I can connect with them – like dogs or horses - in some way that I never thought possible with marine life.

“They’re just magical. I was worried how I could relate to the manta rays. I like to cuddle and stroke animals. But they are very captivating, very mesmeric.”

Just 300 miles away from the paradise islands of the Maldives in Sri Lanka Martin was disturbed to witness the booming business in fishing for manta rays.

Local marine biologist Daniel Fernando, took Martin to a fish market in Mirissa, where manta rays are known to be bought and sold to feed a growing demand for use in Chinese medicine.

The manta rays are hacked apart for the gill rakers, the black filters along the underside of the rays’ torso that help them breathe underwater. The gill rakers are dried and turned to powder used to purify the blood.

“What I saw in Sri Lanka was truly gruesome. You can’t blame the local fisherman, especially after the devastating affects of the Tsunami.

“But without a solution to this the consequences for the manta ray population in the Indian Ocean could be catastrophic.

“From making this film, I learnt quite a lot, and not just about manta rays, but the underwater world, and how it is being plundered in an unsustained way. The way pregnant sharks and their babies are being killed; it does not make sense for their own business. I am not sure what the answer is.”

Martin was so moved by what he encountered on his travels that he has pledged to help a charity which is monitoring the manta population in Ecuador.

He also donated money to a help to save an albino turtle whose life was in jeopardy after her tank at a turtle hatchery in Sri Lanka was destroyed by the tsunami.

“Lily the albino turtle wouldn’t survive in the wild and needed to stay in a tank to live. I gave them some money to build her a bigger tank. I have kept in touch with them to follow Lily’s progress, and they have already bought the building materials and are starting work on making the tank for Lily.”

Martin is now looking forward to returning to Cornwall to make a new series of the ratings winning comedy drama Doc Martin.

Tim Ecott Associate Producer & Diving Supervisor talks about the inspiration for the documentary and how he restored Martin Clunes’ confidence underwater
Associate producer and divemaster Tim Ecott has dived all over the world and has a great passion for the marine environment.

Through his contacts in the marine world Martin Clunes was able to interview some of the leading researchers on manta biology – including Dr. Andrea Marshall and Guy Stevens in locations including the Cayman islands, Ecuador, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

“Many of the creatures that live in the sea are still very little understood. And, while coral reefs and small secretive animals like pygmy seahorses are bewitching to me, they are difficult subjects to engage with unless you are a keen diver or have quite a strong interest in the marine world.

“I wanted to make a film about one of the largest, and most charismatic species of sea creatures – the manta ray – and explain to viewers that these gentle giants have fascinating lives, and that they are in need of protection.

“I have met many mantas underwater over the years, and those encounters have always been magical, and given me a sense of peace. It’s what divers almost always say when they’ve been with these large, elegant plankton eaters – harmless to humans and without the ‘sting-ray’s’ venomous spine in the tail.

“I suggested the project to Martin Clunes because he and I had previously discussed our mutual passion for scuba diving and his love of animals is well known.

“The idea of getting Martin Clunes into the water with the mantas in large numbers was particularly appealing, because I knew he would fall in love with them. But more than that, we wanted to explain some of the amazing facts about these creatures – which can grow to over 20 feet across. Although they are fish – their life cycle is in many ways closer to that of a mammal. They breed slowly – having one baby – called ‘a pup’ about once every two years. They also have a large brain, and as we found out during filming, can be trained.

“One of my tasks was to ensure that Martin was not put into a situation which might be dangerous.I knew that he had a panic attack while diving in Scotland, and had not been diving since.

“I therefore planned the mantas film so that the places Martin could dive would not require him to leave his comfort zone underwater. Our agreement was that I would always accompany him underwater and that he would not feel under pressure to dive if he thought conditions would be too difficult.

“Even so, Martin stated on camera that he found the prospect of diving made him quite anxious. This is a common thing among divers who have had a scare – but as an experienced divemaster I have helped many divers get back into the water, and learn to enjoy the magic again.

“Filming mantas in the wild was always going to be a challenge. Unlike many species they are very hard to keep in captivity, but I knew that there were some mantas in the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta in the USA. One of them, ‘Nandi’ was a ray that had been rescued from shark nets in South Africa. The nets are put up to help keep sharks away from the beaches where people swim, but they catch a lot of rays and sharks which then drown.

“Like sharks, mantas need to keep swimming in order to breathe – otherwise they drown. ‘Nandi’ was rescued in time, but she had severe cuts around her head and on the long fins near her mouth. She was taken to an aquarium in Durban where she was nursed back to health. After several months, and with the help of a specially chartered jumbo jet she was taken to Atlanta - to the world’s biggest tank at the Georgia Aquarium. She is quite healthy now – and I knew that the aquarium would let me take Martin into the tank to dive with ‘Nandi’.

“To tell the story of the manta ray properly I knew that it wouldn’t be enough to simply film Martin in the warm waters of the Maldives. We needed to explain that manta rays are not stingrays – and so we went to ‘Sting-ray City’ in the Cayman Islands. Here, I knew there was a shallow sandbar where dozens of sting-rays congregate and can be approached very closely in safety. Martin was happy to go into the water and I filmed dozens of stingrays swimming right around his feet and ankles as he interviewed Cap’n Chuckie, a local skipper who has been visiting ‘Stingray City’ for many years.

“In Sri Lanka we were able to interview people who have started to make a business out of dealing in manta ray ‘gill-rakers’. These frilly internal organs are part of the mantas feeding mechanism – but in Chinese medicine they are used as an ingredient in medicines which claim to ‘purify the blood’. There is no scientific evidence for this but exporters send gill-rakers to Hong Kong for processing and pay cash for them, while the rest of the giant ray is simply thrown away, or used as animal feed. It is a wasteful end for an animal that takes years to mature and breeds slowly.

“As with any documentary involving nature – we knew that we would need some luck to get Martin into the water with a large number of manta rays. in Maldives we dived several times a day for eight days but we only ever saw one or two mantas and often in the distance. Only on the last afternoon of our last day did we find that the conditions were right at Hanifaru – and Martin and I were able to get into the lagoon with over forty rays.”

Tim Ecott writes regularly for the British press on scuba diving and the marine environment. He has dived all over the world and was scriptwriter for the BBC’s landmark underwater feature ‘Deep Blue’ (the movie version of Blue Planet). He is the author of the international best-seller ‘Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World’ (Penguin).


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