Reef manta ray

Present in the MPA in every month. Manta Point sightings roughly double in May, coinciding with a courtship peak in April-May. Dec-Mar cancellations at Manta Point are caused by surface swell, not by the animals leaving.

No closure, but Dec-Mar brings rough surface conditions and frequent same-day cancellations at Manta Point and Crystal Bay. Operators keep running; the boats just turn back more often. Book buffer days in those months.

Present year-round in the park; concentrations reported strongest Dec-Feb in the south when plankton density peaks. That is also the roughest time to reach the southern sites, which is the trade nobody mentions.

The park stays open and the northern sites are diveable year-round from Labuan Bajo. The 'limited' months reflect the south: Dec-Feb monsoon swell makes the southern sites and the crossing to them unreliable, and liveaboard itineraries shift or shorten. Confusingly, Dec-Feb is also when the southern manta aggregation is strongest, so the best manta window and the worst access window overlap.

Resident at the cleaning stations year-round with a Dec-Apr concentration. Encounter probability at Manta Sandy in season is reported around 95%, which is unusually high for a manta site.

The 'limited' case this field exists for. Nothing closes, but from roughly May to September the southern monsoon brings strong winds, high waves and visibility down to 10-15m, and a substantial share of the liveaboard fleet suspends Raja Ampat itineraries or repositions elsewhere in Indonesia. July and August are the worst of it. Resorts stay open and sheltered sites stay diveable, so you can still go, at lower prices, with fewer options and a real chance of blown-out days.

Present but not a cleaning-station product. No reliable aggregation site inside the park.

The hardest access window in this dataset. Roughly mid-March to mid-June only, which is why March and June read 'limited' rather than 'open'. Outside it the northeast monsoon (Nov-Mar) and southwest monsoon (Jul-Oct) make the crossing to an exposed mid-sea atoll unsafe. Nothing about the reef changes; you simply cannot get there. Boats sell out 9-12 months ahead as a direct result.

Aggregation size tracks zooplankton density rather than a calendar season, so 'year-round' is accurate but night-to-night counts swing widely, from one animal to thirty-plus. Keauhou is used predominantly by females with high site fidelity; Garden Eel Cove holds the larger aggregations. Not guaranteed on any given night.

Leeward coast, sheltered by the volcano. Diveable close to every day of the year. Winter swell restricts shore entries but not boat operations.

Resident animals reported at La Reina.

Diving runs year-round, but Los Islotes, the single biggest draw, is closed 1 June to 31 August for sea lion breeding. That is a hard site closure inside an otherwise open destination, which is why Jun-Aug reads 'limited' rather than 'open' or 'closed'. Hurricane season overlaps the same window.

Nov-Apr at German Channel and Devilfish City.

Diveable all year with no closure. Jun-Sep is the wet season with rougher seas, visibility down to 15-20m, and exposed sites like Peleliu frequently cancelled, hence 'limited'. Dec-Apr is dry season with 40m+ visibility and is also the manta window.

Reported year-round at sites near the north pass rather than in the shark channel itself.

Open year-round; the sharks do not have a season. Nov-Apr is the wetter, warmer, more humid half with more rain and occasional cyclone risk, and May-Oct is drier. Neither closes anything.

Jul-Sep. Note this is the inverse of the hammerhead window, so the two headline seasonal animals cannot be combined in one trip.

Open year-round with no closure. Jun-Sep is the peak tourist season and the drier half; Dec-Mar is warmer, wetter and carries the hammerhead window. The two headline seasons pull in opposite directions, which is the useful thing to know before booking. Low operating

Dec-May at Madivaru (Manta Point). Monsoon-driven cleaning station activity.

Open year-round. Jun-Sep is the southwest monsoon with more rain, wind and reduced visibility, and the western sites blow out, so those read 'limited'. The whale sharks are there regardless; the diving around them is just less pleasant.

Present in the Maldives year-round; the Hanifaru mass-feeding aggregation runs May-December with the strongest conditions late July to early October, particularly around full and new moon. Aggregation is driven by lunar tidal cycles concentrating plankton, so the moon matters more than the month.

The atoll is open and divable all year, but Hanifaru Bay itself is a seasonal southwest-monsoon phenomenon running roughly May to December. Outside that window the resorts and dive sites operate normally and the bay is simply empty, so Jan-Apr reads 'limited' rather than 'closed': you can go, you will dive, you will not see the thing Baa Atoll is famous for.

Year-round in the Coral Bay lagoon. Wingspans reported to 8m.

Diving and snorkelling continue year-round, but the whale shark tour fleet only operates March to June or August depending on the base, and the humpback swims July to October. Nov-Feb is the Australian summer wet and cyclone season on this coast with the megafauna gone, so those months read 'limited': the reef is still there, the industry is largely not.