Plastic in the Pacific Crusade – Hard luck (Pt.II)

by Ian Thomson on 24 Apr 2016 The following day and it was time to leave Tahiti, but not before a dive at the wrecks on the way out. Justin joined us once again and the visibility was a lot better with less rain recently. The plane wreck was once again impressive and the amount of fish around the boat wreck seemed to have increased. Needless to say, even though he couldn’t dive amongst the wrecks due to depth restrictions for beginners, Joakim, on his first proper dive, had a pretty good dive swimming over the top of them.

We then took off to Moorea, this time we wanted to see the sharks and rays. The sail across was once again slow and sloppy. We arrived back into Tareu pass and dropped the anchor before sunset. A quiet night and a good forecast meant there was not need to take off again the next day. In the morning we shot over to western most pass and whilst we had been told you can’t anchor in there and that we should take a mooring in front of the resort, we couldn’t find a way through to that mooring with our draft so we dropped the anchor to the west of the shark diving site.

It is pretty obvious where it is as you come in, there are boats on it pretty much all the time, but it is in shallow waters on the north side of the channel about 1nm from the entrance, probably not even that.

We quickly jumped in our tender and made our way over to the site and dropped our anchor in waist deep water. Dropping over the side and you are quickly surrounded by stingrays and sharks. They are fed here so they think every boat has more food. It is quite an experience swimming amongst them and at one stage I found a piece of tuna and held it out and the rays would slide up your body onto your hand to get the food.

The bigger tourist boats off the cruise ship in town were feeding the sharks and every time this happened there would be a feeding frenzy where the rays would stir up the bottom and the sharks would be swarming all around them. I got in the middle of it on several occasions and it was hard to choose which direction to look, let along point the GoPro.

The family all loved it and it was hard to drag them away. We got talking to one of the locals and he said that two of the rays know him personally and always go to him when he is there, whether he has food or not. Seeing rays hug a human, is something else. It was a pretty awesome place.

That afternoon we went back to Tareu pass and anchored again and explored the land. Not much around, just nice beaches and palm trees. Annika saw a huge German Shepherd, just like she has at home. She was in love. Moorea is a beautiful little island and the rays and sharks are exceptional.

Once again, I don’t have a problem with them feeding them in the wild, it is their choice to be there or not, they are not captive like the dolphins in the resort there which have no choice in the matter, they can’t come and go when they please. Seeing the animals in the wild is such a better option and so much healthier for the animals themselves.

The next day we had a mission to get to Tetiaroa, a little island 30nm north of Tahiti. Formerly owned by Marlon Brando, it was meant to have great diving so we looked forward to another adventure. Stay tuned for that story and our next visit to Huahine, Raiatea and Tahaa in our next edition.

Ocean Crusaders are out to change the way people treat our oceans. Our online education program is free to download at Ocean Crusaders website where children can learn of the issues our oceans are facing and how they can make a difference. The Plastic in the Pacific Crusade is about educating the South Pacific Islands, finding out what is happening in these islands and updating our programs.

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