Diving Bora Bora and Moorea

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Hi!

I have an upcoming trip to Moorea and Bora Bora for a few days on each island. My husband doesn't dive, but I'm AWC. We are planning a snorkelling excursion in both places. I also booked a dive on Moorea. I have done a decent amount of diving in the Caribbean, Cozumel, and Hawaii. I have also dove the GBR.

Is it worth diving Bora Bora? Is it very different than the snorkelling? I will only be able to go out 1 day.

Thanks
Thanks!
Yes. I dived from the Paul Gaugin around Moorea and Bora Bora. Both were worth the price of admission!
 
My English isn’t rusty. But a “fever” of rays is a brand new term for me. Not in the dictionary for sure. Better than a fluther of jellyfish or a shiver of sharks I suppose.
Now I’m going to have to look it up. I thought I knew it as the term of aggregation for rays, but I’m getting to the age when a lot of the things I know I remember just aren’t so.
 
Now I’m going to have to look it up. I thought I knew it as the term of aggregation for rays, but I’m getting to the age when a lot of the things I know I remember just aren’t so.
It’s used by NatGeo and elsewhere on the net but not in any dictionary.

 
I think usage used to indicate evidence of education and therefore class in the 19th century. Today it’s tossers like us that use terms like a “lickety split of goldfish” to impress our friends!
 
I dove Tahiti and bora bora in 2016. The dive outfit i went with on bora bora said that the visibility in the lagoon was crap on the day we went, so no lagoon dive. We did one dive outside the barrier islands immediately north of the airport. The other dive was in the main lagoon inlet.

We saw a fair number of fish and coral on the first dive. The second dive was where a snorkel outfit was feeding sharks, so we sat below them. 50+ reef sharks and 3 or 4 good sized lemon sharks.

I too have a spouse who doesn’t dive, so for me it was one day each to dive and that’s it. I enjoyed both dives, but neither were mind blowing.
 

I was there two weeks ago. My impression is based on a very small sample from an anniversary vacation with my non-diver wife, during which even a moderate amount of diving would have been contrary to the together-time mission of the trip.

I enjoyed Moorea more than Bora Bora. I saw a very large fever of Eagle Rays at Bora Bora at the end of an otherwise depressing dive over moonscape. Moorea offered more healthy coral and variety of fish, plus a turtle, and three species of shark (white tip, black tip, and lemon). Neither offered the biomass one would see in the Florida Keys. But, as I said, my sample was very small. There's probably much better diving in both places that I didn't see.

The Moorea dive operator was Moorea Fun Dive, a small PADI center that's little more than a shack on the beach with a small aluminum boat on an improvised mooring ball a few meters away at wading depth. The two French women who run it were cordial and professional, and the inexperience of my Instabuddy gave our guide a chance to display her ability to extend a dive by sharing air and still showing us interesting critters.

My best dive of the trip was at Raiatea: a gorgeous slope of healthy coral down to about 100 feet with unlimited visibility, plenty of reef fish and some bigger stuff hanging out in the depths, including the first whale I've seen while diving. The dive operator was Hemisphere Sub, located at the Apooti Marina (the first big marina you see if you go counter clockwise around the island from the airport). They picked me up from and dropped me off at the AirBNB we were staying at for no extra charge--I think it's a normal service they provide to anyone. They're a solid operation. They also gave me a choice of AL80 or Steel 100 tanks at the same price.

My French is rusty and only basic tourist survival quality. Language was not a barrier with any of the operators, even though English speakers are a minority of the tourists in French Polynesia.
We dove with the same operators in Moorea and Raiatea - Moorea Fun Dive and Hemisphere Sub, and had great experiences at both about two years ago. Similar to Scraps, English was spoken perfectly at both shops, and pickup/dropoff was included in the Hemisphere Sub service.
 
....Is it worth diving Bora Bora?

Thanks
Thanks!
Yes! Have the dive op take you outside the lagoon for great viz, blacktips, and 9 foot lemon sharks, among other things! :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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