Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia
Fakarava
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve atoll 400km from Tahiti with two tidal passes, the southern one holding a permanent aggregation of several hundred grey reef sharks in a 200m-wide channel.
- Scalloped hammerhead
- Reef manta ray
- Sharks
- Strong current
Best season
Best Dec–Mar
Minimum cert
Advanced
Water
25–30°C
Current
strong
Season
When this place works
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.
Why dive here
What this place is known for
01sharkThe Wall of Sharks, Tumakohua (south) pass
Several hundred grey reef sharks holding station in current in a 200m channel, permanently, not seasonally. Lemon sharks, hammerheads and oceanic whitetips also recorded here. There is no equivalent density of resident reef sharks in an accessible pass…
02driftPass drift diving
Genuinely the product rather than a hazard. Both passes are dived on the incoming tide, dropping outside and being flushed into the lagoon. Garuae in the north is 1,600m wide, the widest channel in French Polynesia, and needs slack or incoming water.…
03pelagicMarbled grouper spawning aggregation
Surprise relative to the headline, and one of the great underwater events almost nobody plans for. Around the June-July full moon on an outgoing tide, marbled grouper mass in the south pass to spawn, and the resident sharks arrive to hunt them. Sometimes…
Seasonality — absentabsentabsentabsentabsentpeakpeakabsentabsentabsentabsentabsent
Marine life
Twelve-month species timelines
Several hundred animals resident in the south pass, every month. Unbaited: they hold in the channel because the current delivers food, not because anyone feeds them. This is the strongest 'any month…
Resident, but the spawning aggregation is the event and it is keyed to the full moon in June-July rather than to a month. Check the lunar calendar before booking.
Jan-Mar reported as the peak window, at depth in the passes.
Reported year-round at sites near the north pass rather than in the shark channel itself.
Aug-Oct in French Polynesian waters. In-water interaction is regulated across French Polynesia and is a surface activity where permitted; not a dive.
Conditions
What the water is like
Water temp
25–30°C
15°C — 32°C
Visibility
10–40 m
0 m — 40 m
Current
strong
mild — strong
Thermoclines
Not typical
unlikely
Minimum certification — Advanced
Warm and clear, but tidal current in a pass is not the same skill as reef drift. Dives are timed to the incoming tide and getting the timing wrong flushes you out of the atoll rather than into it. Depth range 5-30m. Sources put it at…
Entries — boat
Recommended & required
- nitrox — recommended. Repetitive pass profiles at 25-30m.
Logistics
How people dive it
4-10 days
scuba
Rustic pensions rather than resorts, concentrated at Rotoava in the north. Format trap: Rotoava is at the NORTH pass and the Wall of Sharks…
7-10 days
scuba
Tuamotu itineraries covering Fakarava, Rangiroa and often Toau. The only format that dives both passes properly without a repositioning…
Operators
Who to book with
Loading operators…
Sources & verification
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