Living in Los Angeles, when I want to go someone remote, with amazing shark life that doesn’t take two days to get to, I go to Manta Ray Bay resort in Yap.

I only had thirty days to do an underwater video product, and I wanted one location, ease of travel, sharks, with warm clear water and a variety of undersea attractions. I like upscale comfort, and a cooperative place to work – so Ichose the Manta Ray Bay Resort in Yap. You can get there in a single day of travel with no overnights – you fly from LAX to Honolulu, Honolulu to Guam, Guam to Yap. It is about 13 hours of flying, and 20 - 21 hours total time including layovers. As for the sharks, Yap’s Vertigo dive site was well known to me, and the water is clear and warm (84F) with perhaps 30 sharks on a single dive to mingle with. They have a special dive that attracts the sharks w/o feeding them, by using a closed chum cage. So the sharks approach and circle around smelling a meal, an ideal scenario. We were able to visit the site numerous times. The friendly owner Bill Acker came out with us. His familiarity with these sharks was such that we gave him the camera system to hold. Bill got in real close and we soon had great footage in the can. The result is a film: “For the Love of Sharks”

The beauty of Yap is the lack of crowds. There are no high rises or fast food outlets. You are totally in another culture, Yapese, Micronesian, but the currency is the US $ and everybody speaks English. All the rooms have comfort, air con, and a unique sea creature décor. The food is great and served aboard a large Indonesian phinisi schooner by happy servers. You order from a menu: fresh seafood, local fruit, burgers, salads, sashimi, pasta, and superb pizza. The ship (Mnuw) has a big screen for showing dive movies every night, some from the day’s adventures.They also have a great infinity pool for relaxing, andhave a brewery on the premises. I’m told the beer is great!

Yap Divers is the resort’s dive center where your dive vessel assignments are posted. It has a spacious dive locker where you can wash and store your gear. There’s a camera rinse tank and extensive camera tables. Yap Divers is a PADI 5-star facility.

The routine is two dives in the morning, and additional dives in the afternoon and evening, including a mandarin fish site. The dive vessels are clean, fast, rides are short and take you through a picturesque mangrove forest. Underwater attractions are the world famous manta rays, sharks, tropical fish, and critters, withdrop offs all around. Drift dives are common. Each dive site is unique. Most dive sites are a 10 – 30 minute boat ride away.

The Yapese culture is traditional and not westernized. Large stone money discs are everywhere and unique to Yapese culture, with much history behind them. You can visit villages and see colorful native dances.The Manta Ray Bay Resort has been in business since the 1980’s and is a popular stopover for visitors to Palau. However, I have been to Yap several times and enjoy being there for longer than a short stop over. A month is perfect. It seems to be the fastest way from LA to get to a remote tropical paradise without overnights, hustle and bustle, big hotels or dealing with crowds. I love the clear water and plenty of action everywhere.

I am very happy I chose Yap our “For the Love of Sharks”expedition.

Last year, I saw a tremendous product that was engineered to accomplish 360 degree filming underwater. The system was an engineering marvel employing 6 Go Pro cameras. I had to have it. Once in my hands I had to decide where to go to use it? I was looking for the best of all worlds. Our 360Hero video has been to DEMA, CES, and Sundance.

See “For the Love of Sharks”:www.macdonaldrpoductions.com