silver-tip-shark

Hammerheads, silver tips, gray reef, black tip, white tip, nurse, and lemon: the sharks of French Polynesia I was lucky enough to see while diving. We missed the tiger sharks of Tahiti and Jen missed the hammerheads on Rangiroa but I think that means we’ll need to come back here.

blacktip-shark-french-polynesia
Blacktip reef shark
reef-shark-remora
Find the remora!
shark-turtle
Shark to the left and turtle to the right

 

Sharks aside, the underwater world in French Polynesia is incredible. Visibility is almost always unbelievably good, the water consistently 27 or 28 degrees C (80-82 Fahrenheit), and the odds are good that you’ll see schools of fish, rays, turtles, sharks, countless species of fish, and plenty of coral. Some of those you’re just as likely to see snorkeling as you are diving.

arc eye hawkfish
Arc eye hawkfish

 

sixbar wrasse
Sixbar wrasse
goatfish
Goatfish
peacock grouper
Peacock grouper

bluestripe

 

 

Beautiful blue Christmas tree worms
Beautiful blue Christmas tree worm

Due to an injury that kept me out of the water for a few days and our need to be fiscally responsible, we only managed one dive on Bora Bora but we found the snorkeling here better than anywhere else in French Polynesia so for the most part, I don’t mind. We did miss the manta ray cleaning station though and I’ve yet to see a manta anywhere – another reason to return.

 

clownfish
Anemone fish at home!
purple-clam
Neon purple clam
creepymoray
A creepy miniature spotted moray eel.
pink-tailed triggerfish
Pink-tailed triggerfish
Titan triggerfish
Titan triggerfish

 

 

 

 

spiny-sea-cucumber
Spiny sea cucumber

 

 

 

 

 

Rangiroa’s Tiputa Pass is well known to divers who make it to this part of the world for good reason. Drift dives begin outside the lagoon so the current takes you into the pass. Along the way, you might hang on to the wall for a bit to watch dozens of sharks (apparently hundreds during summer months), eagle rays, schools of barracuda, humphead wrasse, and literally thousands of other fish. If you’re lucky, dolphins will come to play with you but even if they don’t come to play, you can often see and hear them playing at the surface. A canyon in the pass allows you to hide out and watch more life go by if you have enough air and no-deco time left to enjoy it.

Tiputa Pass
Tiputa Pass
School of barracuda
School of barracuda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Napoleon-wrasse
Humphead wrasse (napoleon)
moorish-idols
Moorish Idols

 

 

 

Unicornfish
Unicornfish

yellowfish

 

Avatoru Pass, about 12 km away from Tiputa Pass, is home to silver tip sharks. Our dive here was the first time that seeing sharks ever made my heart race: these guys come straight at you, mouths open, and don’t swerve around you until what feels like the last possible moment.

silvertip-shark  silver-tip-shark

French Polynesia law requires at least Rescue certification to go below 29m/95 ft so Jen and I split up for one dive. While she saw a turtle and three spotted eagle rays gliding slowly by, I made a negative entry with a small group of divemasters and instructors in a spot with strong current. Within the first 90 seconds we were all pointing at a hammerhead chasing a grey reef shark. Adult grey reef sharks can be over 2.5m/8ft long and this one had a hammerhead about three times its size right on its tail. Rumor has it that hammerheads have been known to eat reef sharks so I was hoping for a show but didn’t get it. We saw two more hammerheads on that dive along with a huge napoleon (a/k/a humphead wrasse), plenty of black tip and grey reef sharks, and the usual colorful fish of the South Pacific. The ease of diving with excellent divers and letting the current push me along meant that I was more relaxed on this dive than I sometimes am and with so much to see, it goes down as one of my all-time favorite dives.

Diving in Moorea was similar to Bora Bora with the addition of schools of spotted eagle rays. The visibility was poor the day we saw them due to recent rain but they were just as beautiful as ever.

puffer
Pufferfish
nurse-shark
Nurse shark
yellow-moray
Yellow moray
picasso-fish
Picasso fish (white banded triggerfish)
octopus
Saw this octopus while snorkeling
trumpetfish
Trumpetfish
eaglerays
School of eagle rays

mooreaturtle

We didn’t make it to Fakarava which we’ve heard is better than Rangiroa so the reasons for a return trip continue to accumulate. If any of our dive buddies out there want to join me someday for a trip to the South Pacific to hit these spots and more, let me know when and I’ll start saving the airline miles and money to dive!

7 thoughts on “Underwater in French Polynesia: Diving and Snorkeling

    • June 4, 2014 at 10:46 am
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      Plan the trip – but get your Rescue certification first so you can do the really good dives!

  • June 4, 2014 at 2:20 pm
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    Wonderful photos and nice ode to South Seas underwater life… You two are a great team!

  • June 5, 2014 at 8:26 pm
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    I’ll join you! You know…sometime…

  • July 3, 2014 at 11:23 am
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    Hi Marbree and Jen,
    Its awesome to be able to follow your travels on this web site. You’ve taken some great photos and its nice to be able to see them. Especially since we are really missing Rangiroa already and its only been just over a month. I am still wading through most of my 220 GB of videos and photos from our time on Rangiroa. I haven’t gotten as far as our sunset and silvertip shark dives yet but will send you any good footage from these dives as I’m sure there is some footage with both of you in it. Anyways its nice to be able to follow your travels on this site and you are both awesome photographers. I look forward to your continued adventures.

    • July 3, 2014 at 11:38 am
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      Hi Oliver, it’s great to hear from you! Jen gets all the credit for underwater photographs and 95% of those taken on land, as well. I too miss our time on Rangiroa and am trying to figure out when and how to get back there. I’m sure you got some great footage (220 GB!!) and look forward to anything you care to share. We have a few holes in the coverage of our adventures that we need to fill in but are doing our best to keep posting! I hope you and the family are all doing well – a belated Happy Canada Day!

  • September 13, 2014 at 8:57 pm
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    Awesome!! My wife and I also missed Fakarava and heard the same thing, that it would be the best place to dive where you have schools of big sharks and they do shark feeding during the dive.. agree with you, another reason to go back there 😀

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