Sailors have been known for telling tall tales. So when Terry Kennedy, a now 83-year-old sailor, would talk about swimming with his friend off Mexico’s remote Revillagigedo Islands in the late 1980s, it’s understandable why some questioned if it was all true. The charismatic friend he was always going on about was, after all, a 22-foot giant manta ray.
This extraordinary bond between man and manta is the focus behind the new film The Last Dive, premiering at Tribeca Film Festival on June 8th, World Oceans Day. If The Octopus Teacher could change the way the world sees cephalopods, this film will surely move you to care more deeply about mantas. The documentary follows Kennedy on a final expedition, a “dying wish,” to swim with his friend Willy one last time.
An ex-Hells Angel and Vietnam vet sailing Baja’s Sea of Cortez on a boat named Erotica in the 80s, Kennedy is a local legend with no shortage of stories. But the one that forever changed his life—and the lives of the Pacific manta rays in these Mexican waters—was how he became friends with “Willy Wow.”
It all began one morning in 1988, when Kennedy was on his sailboat off San Benedicto, a tiny uninhabited volcanic island in the Revillagigedo Islands chain, 210 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
“All of a sudden, there’s a big old bang on the side of the boat. The boat actually moves about a foot in one direction. I thought we got hit by another boat, but looking around we were the only ones in the [area],” Kennedy tells Outside.
“I look over the side and here’s this giant manta ray half the length of the boat. And the boat’s 46 feet long. Well, I can’t pass this up,” he recalls. An expert diver who’s clocked more than 14,000 dives, Kennedy has taken a lot of chances in his life. At this point, he had only seen a massive ray in the distance; he had never been in the water with one before. Not wasting a moment, Kennedy grabs his tank and his fins, and jumps over the side. But once he’s in the water, the ray is gone.
“He just vanished. As I looked down to make sure I had my fins on, there he was right below me, about four feet down. Nothing but massive black coming up right underneath me. There’s nothing I could do…but hang on.”
And off they went. Kennedy says he hung on, gently, to the back of this gigantic manta ray while it took him for a ride. “After about 15- 20 minutes, he brought me right back to the boat. And then he did the same thing the very next morning.”
So began a nearly 20-year-long friendship between Kennedy and Willy, his name for his new friend (“Willy Wow” is his full name). “Whenever he’s feeding on the south end of the island, he recognizes the bottom of the boat,” Kennedy believes. With a gentle slap of his wing on the hull of the boat, Willy signals him it’s time for another dive.
An Unlikely Conservationist
Some of you reading this are likely thinking no one should be touching—and especially riding— a threatened marine animal. But these encounters happened over 37 years ago, when little was known about the lives of manta rays, even by marine biologists.
Since no one believed Kennedy’s encounters of riding a magical manta, he started to film them. From then on, when he talked about Willy he could prove these incredible moments happened with pictures and video. It was also Kennedy’s quick camera skills that documented what would become a catalyst to protect these same mantas.
On February 14, 1994, fishermen aboard two Mexican boats moved into the waters around San Benedicto Island with nets, baited hooks and harpoons seeking to catch and kill anything they could—including Kennedy’s friends, two other giant manta rays he swam with, in addition to Willy. Mexican law prohibited commercial fishermen from fishing within two miles of Revillagigedo Islands; these fishermen were only 200 yards from shore.
As eyewitnesses, Kennedy and his then partner, Joyce Clinton, were horrified yet managed to document on video and camera what later would be called The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. What they captured on camera attracted international news, and the swift attention of the Mexican president to intervene and soon after declare the Revillagigedo Islands a Biosphere Reserve.
In 2016, UNESCO declared the islands a World Heritage Site, and in 2017, it became the largest marine protected area in North America. These islands are now known as the “Galápagos of Mexico,” and home to one the largest aggregations of manta rays, and sharks, in the world.
The Last Chance to Find Willy
Kennedy’s incredible encounters with manta rays defied everything that was known about ocean life at the time, and changed irrevocably our understanding of mantas. After Dr Robert Rubin, founder and director of the Pacific Manta Research Group and one of the leading authorities on the species, saw the sailor’s footage, he secured funding for one of the first major manta ray research projects. This work led to an entire field of manta research that tracks over a thousand individual mantas at these islands. The affectionate names Kennedy gave to his manta friends in addition to Willy—Rosy, Chevy, Tippy—scientists still use today.
Kennedy’s bond with Willy goes beyond research, suggests The Last Dive director Cody Sheehy: “Willy wasn’t just tolerating Terry—he was engaging with him, leading him through underwater canyons, protecting him from sharks, or just playing.”
Terry Kennedy and his wife Dawn, watch the sunrise before the last dive. (Photo: Chance Falkner)
For nearly two decades, Willy always found Kennedy, who would then climb onto his back and the two would communicate on a level no one else could understand. Willy could read his mind, Kennedy believes—what Dr Rubin says “isn’t an unreasonable thought.” Rubin’s research suggests that manta rays can identify us by electrical fingerprints since their faces are filled with electrical receivers.
It was another chance encounter that brought Kennedy’s friendship with Willy to the big screen. Sheehy, a sailor as well, met Kennedy while he was anchored off Loreto, a coastal town on Baja California Sur, nine years ago. One evening over sundowners, Kennedy’s stories started to flow. “It became clear that this man wasn’t just another cruiser—he had lived a life most people couldn’t even dream of,” states the filmmaker.
Sheehy, admittedly, at first was also a bit skeptical of Kennedy’s stories about Willy—until he saw the footage. “When I found out about the massacre, and the role that Terry played in bringing attention to it, especially at the level of the Mexican president and the protections that came from it, that’s when I realized this is a great human story, a story of redemption.”
“The reason why the mantas are still there is because of [Terry]. It just shows what one person can do,” says the director. “Think of what else people will be inspired to do [after watching the film].”
As Kennedy aged, his life moved to land. His age has made trips to the islands more challenging, and maintaining a boat that can make the journey is expensive and tiring. So Sheehy saw a way he could take Kennedy back home to see his long lost friend. The last recorded Willy sighting was in 2017, and giant manta rays have an average lifespan of around 40 to 50 years. So it’s not unreasonable to think Willy could still be around. Kennedy hasn’t stopped thinking about Willy in all these years; he worries his old friend thinks he forgot about him.
Kennedy had a troubled past, but none of that mattered under the surface. He not only found redemption in the ocean, but healing. This “blue therapy” is a growing body of research that shows time in or near water reduces stress, anxiety, and symptoms of PTSD. Scuba diving, in particular, has proved transformative for veterans like Kennedy.
How to Swim With Mantas—Ethically
While Kennedy was the first known person to ride a manta, it’s now considered harmful and extremely discouraged. But the close connection Kennedy made with Willy and all the footage he captured proved there is so much we don’t know about manta rays and ocean life in general. The sailor’s unusual bond ultimately became the catalyst for protecting manta rays and all life around Revillagigedo Islands.
What are the dangers today for the mantas around these islands? And is there still an ethical way to swim with them?
Today, the biggest threats to mantas is overtourism and boat strikes around the island and in their migratory travels. “As Revilla is a remote location, technically protected by both a National Park and the World Heritage Site, it’s largely a safe space for these animals,” says Karey Kumli, project manager at Pacific Manta Research Group. “However, there is the occasional illegal fishing, primarily at night; we know this as the liveaboards keep their AIS scanner on and watch for lights.”
Yet tourism plays a powerful role in protecting the manta rays. “It wasn’t until all the tourist boats came [to Revillagigedo Islands] that the fishing really was enforced. So it’s crucial that there’s tourists there,” says Sheehy. “The money and the jobs brought to those islands show the Mexican government could justify their position on keeping it in the national park and keeping out the fishing,” he adds.
Now the issue is how to keep tourism here ethical and responsible. Mantas like to come to the surface; they need to be at the surface to feed. But getting hit by boats is one of the biggest threats to them right now.
“The tourism operators are really good about understanding that too many people in the water, and touching and riding mantas, is not going to be good for mantas. The film, and our team really, is behind the idea of sustainable diving with the mantas.”
In the 10 days they were filming the documentary around the islands, a manta got hit by another boat. “If [mantas] get hit too many times, they’re not going to want to be around tourists, right? And then all those diving experiences that the operators are getting money from will disappear, because the mantas won’t come anymore.”
Kennedy’s final chance to find his long lost friend is not a fool’s errand. Individual mantas have been tracked for up to 33 years—the worldwide age record for the oceanic (giant) mantas. When they look back at photo sets taken 10-40 years ago, ninety-five percent of those animals have made at least a second appearance, shares Kumli.
If you think you spotted Willy or any other manta ray, you can submit photos to the Pacific Manta Research Group database “When divers submit manta images from Revilla to us, we do a quick scan for re-sighted animals. We’d recognize Willie in a heartbeat,” adds Kumli. Willy has four signature black dots in the shape of a diamond on his right shoulder.
Will Kennedy find Willy? You’ll have to watch the film to find out. While his encounters changed so much of what we know about mantas, so many mysteries remain. Why did Willy pick him to be his friend? What is certain is that an unlikely conservationist became a hero for the ocean—reminding us of how much we have yet to discover—and that anything is possible. But bring a camera if you want anyone to believe you.
_________________________________________________________
Kathleen Rellihan is the Travel and Culture Senior Editor at Outside who swam with mobula rays (Willy’s smaller cousins) in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Seeing a manta ray while scuba diving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef was a lifelong dream. Another one is spotting Willy herself.
