The underwater life found in the two channels is abundant and varied - including some glorious corals.   You will encounter huge schools of sharks (large concentrations of gray sharks, but also white tips, black tips, sleepers, great hammerhead sharks, sometimes tigers ...).    You will also see barracudas, eagle rays and manta rays, napoleon wrasse, as well as dolphins and a multitude of different schools of fish: big-eye snapper, goatfish, groupers and lots of moray eels ...   At certain times of the year, you can view passing humpback whales, melon-headed whales, whale sharks, giant groupers, schools of manta mobilae ...

But there are no words to describe the rush of diving in the channels with immense numbers of these animals, as the water carries divers and wildlife alike surging in or out of the lagoon, to or from the blue waters of the ocean.  

In addition. you're in French Polynesia, perhaps the most consummate example of Paradise on the planet. Above the water-line and below, you'll find wonders of nature that have few equals.

There's no Disneyland ride to equal this !

You'll also encounter manta rays, leopard rays & huge schools of eagle rays, big pods of dolphins (who love diver interaction) and if you're lucky, even the stray marlin.

The exhilarating diving is done in these passes on incoming tides. You'll surge through the passes on the drift dives of your life .... fish & sharks & rays all boiling around you doing the same drift!  Spine-tingling & unforgettable.   There are lovely lagoon dives also with beautiful corals, plenty of turtles, morays and reef fish (unicornfish, surgeonfish, paddletail snappers, fusiliers, kingfish, soldierfish ....). Mix in a few critters and you have super dives.

On the ocean side, the action is generated by the schools of Napoleon wrasses, barracudas, snappers, dogfish tuna, bigeye jacks .... plus, of course, more dolphins & sharks

And, in Rurutu, you have the distinct possibility of seeing far more than humpbacks.  Sightings are not uncommon of the following species: sperm whales, minke whales, sei whales, pilot whales, beaked whales, melon-headed whales.

Like the humpbacks in Tonganese waters, the groups of humpbacks that come to mate and bear their young here come from Antarctic waters and spend 3 – 4 months of the year as residents of the South Pacific.

The curious & playful calves spend time entertaining themselves as well as learning whale behavior from their mothers, while the adult males spend their time attracting the females in an effort to create next year's group of calves. You'll be overwhelmed as you observe ... whether from the boat or eye to eye with the whales in the water.

Read more about swim-with-whales programs around the world.

Do note that the visibility is generally low due to the concentration of nutrients in the water ... but this is what brings in all of these incredible creatures.  Diving amongst the dramatic sea mounts, caves & walls ... in strong currents .... with hundreds of pelagics is a never-to-be-forgotten experience.

To complete the diving experience, you'll also find eels, sting rays, tuna, parrotfish, triggerfish, scorpionfish, butterfly fish, puffer fish, soldier fish and snappers along with eels and huge lobsters.