DIVING IN FRENCH POLYNESIA, TAHITI

by Anders Salesjö

Dive in French Polynesia Tahiti

At the end of September, we were a group of nine Swedish divers who set off to dive in French Polynesia, Tahiti. The trip was launched early and several of us had been looking forward to this trip for almost three years. None of us had experience diving in French Polynesia before and expectations were set extremely high. Scuba Travel's ambassador Anders Salesjö takes you on an adventure here.

Fantastic close contact with a shark

A large part of the group started diving in Tahiti with shark feeding organized by Fluid Dive Center. The shark feeding was absolutely amazing! We had no less than six different shark species in good view that came up close to the cameras. The sharks at this shark feeding were tiger shark, black tip reef shark, white tip reef shark, gray reef shark, reed fin lemon shark and spitter shark, western Pacifics and Indian Ocean own nurse shark.

After two days of shark feeding, it was time for humpback whale snorkeling, also with Fluid Dive Center. Right after we left the harbor area, we saw the first whales. A female humpback whale with her calf. The calf was resting safely under the mother's head just below us, but when it was about to come up to andas sometimes took a closer look at us strange creatures floating on the surface. Seeing and getting close to these large animals below the surface was definitely a memory for life.

School of sharks swimming beneath the water surface, emphasizing scuba diving adventure and marine life exploration.

Sharks swimming over coral reef during night dive, vibrant marine life, scuba diving adventure images.

Manta ray swimming over coral reef during scuba diving adventure.

Baleen whale swimming in deep blue ocean under clear sky.

Liveboard

Well if on board our liveaboard boat The French Polynesian Master immediately carried it off towards Rangiroa Atoll. This would be one of the best places to dive with playful dolphins, but unfortunately we only got to see them from a distance. At Taou atoll we had a wonderful experience with gray reef sharks swimming around in large shoals of red colored bigeyes. Regarding the liveaboard, it can generally be said that there were a lot of gray reef sharks on the vast majority of dives, but not such a great diversity of other shark species. We were all impressed with the visibility, often it was really crystal clear, without exaggerating I think on many of the dives we had 50-60m visibility. The absolute best dive site during the liveaboard was undoubtedly Fakarava Atoll. As soon as we arrived here, blacktip reef sharks started circling the boat.

Night dive with sharks

Here we also did a night dive which is undoubtedly one of my top ten dives. We went down and sat by the reef and then sharks come in from all sides and start hunting in the light of the lights. White tip reef sharks entered the nooks and crannies of the reef to chase out reef fish while a whole school of gray reef sharks pounced after the startled fish. Everything happened right before our eyes. It was almost surreal, like watching TV, all of a sudden you were thrown into the middle of the worst BBC production. The sharks bumped into us divers constantly, they came out between the legs, bumped into the camera and were extremely close. You were indeed surrounded by sharks, but all they were interested in were the frightened coral reef fishers.

Conclusion

We probably all agreed that French Polynesia is fantastic for large animals such as manta rays, sharks, humpback whales and Napoleon fish. However, you can leave the macro lenses at home if you plan to go there. There are very few small insects on the reefs. The visibility is enormous, but the reefs are not particularly well preserved and rather monotonous, soft corals and horn corals are almost completely absent. The absolute highlights of our trip were the shark feeding, the humpback whales and the night dive with the hunting sharks at Fakarava. Do you want to dive in French Polynesia, Tahiti? contact Scuba Travel here.

Photo: Anders Salesjö