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Scuba Diving in Fakarava
A long coral atoll in the Tuamotus and a UNESCO Man and Biosphere reserve, ringed by reef and cut by two passes. The narrow Tumakohua pass in the south is famous for its wall of grey reef sharks and the winter grouper spawning, while the wide Garuae pass in the north is the largest in French Polynesia.
Why here
Fakarava is where you drift a coral pass inside a shark kingdom. The atoll is a UNESCO Man and Biosphere reserve, and its southern channel, Tumakohua, funnels the whole lagoon's tide through a narrow cut where hundreds of grey reef sharks hang in the current in what divers call the wall of sharks. Come the June and July full moons, thousands of camouflage grouper mass here to spawn and the sharks hunt them in a nightly frenzy that has drawn film crews from around the world. The northern Garuae pass, the biggest in the country, adds manta cleaning stations, big schooling fish and its own shark packs. You dive both passes on the incoming tide, carried over coral gardens that have never been commercially damaged, and between dives the village of Rotoava and the tiny hamlet of Tetamanu sit almost alone on the reef.
Best months
The passes are drift dives run on the incoming tide, so operators time departures to the current rather than the clock. Sharks are present all year, but the spectacle peaks around the June and July full moons when the camouflage grouper aggregate to spawn in the south pass. Water is warm year round, visibility is high, and the south pass in particular is deep and current-driven, so an Advanced certification and comfort with drift diving help. Dry, calmer conditions run roughly May to October.
Getting there & around
Fakarava is reached by a short Air Tahiti flight from Tahiti or Rangiroa to the airstrip near Rotoava, the main village, where most pensions and dive centres cluster. The south pass and its wall of sharks sit an hour or more down the atoll by boat, so many divers either base at the remote Tetamanu village beside the pass or join full-day south-pass trips from the north. Accommodation is small pensions rather than resorts, so book dives and rooms together well ahead, especially around the winter grouper spawning.
Skill levels: intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Kaina Plongee
OutfitterKaina Plongee is a small owner-run dive centre in Rotoava on Fakarava, founded in 2011 by Vincent, a CMAS three-star and BEES-1 instructor who has lived on the atoll since 2001. The team caps groups at ten divers and runs an eight-metre RIB down to the Tumakohua south pass for the wall of sharks, alongside the closer Garuae north pass. It dives year round, two tanks a day, from intro depths to technical levels.
Tetamanu Diving
OutfitterTetamanu Diving is the only dive centre sitting directly on Fakarava's Tumakohua south pass, run from the small guest village of Tetamanu inside the UNESCO Man and Biosphere reserve. Its BEES-1 state-certified instructor leads groups to the pass in minutes, so divers reach the famous wall of grey reef sharks first thing on the incoming tide. Guests dive the same channel that draws the June and July camouflage grouper spawning and the shark packs that hunt it.