moorea dive spots recommendations

[21isfun]

anybody got any recommendations for must see spots on Moorea?

[Travelnsj]

I would use Top dive. I have dove the Lagoon and an outside reef many years ago with Club Med. I found the diving to be OK around Moorea.

But if you want to do world class diving....go to Fakarava or Rangiora. Some of the best diving I have done....For Big stuff only!

[paulw]

I will be on Moorea from 5-16-09 to 5-23-09, I plan 8-10 dives and will post a report when I return.

[paulw]

Moorea Dive Report
I just returned from Moorea and thought I would give anyone interested a short report.
I dove with Bathys Diving and they were great I just don't know what more I can say, you ask and they do their best to make it happen the only down side I found was the price but understand it isn't just them it is VERY and I mean VERY expensive on all the islands. I was able to make five dives and all were good but the stories I read are true the Crown of Thorn Starfish have decimated the reefs although that does not mean the diving is bad.

1- TaoToi - The vis was great, over 100 ft with a slight current with a surface temp of 90 deg and a water temp of 82. The first thing you see when you drop in is black tip sharks and lots of them. There were lots of fish barracuda, tuna, jackfish, red snapper, triggerfish, surgeon fish a couple of turtles and although there was very little living coral there was some coming back and plenty to see. AN OK dive.

2- Aito - The temps were all about the same and a med-current, this reef is just outside the pass in front of the Intercontinental and was about the same only we saw a couple of gray sharks and a couple of leopard rays. The same list of fish, to many to count and LOTS of black tip sharks. A good dive.

3- Taotoi Pass - Same temps vis 40ft and a strong current. This dive started in the lagoon and we went through the pass into open water., because the current was so strong the vis was not very good and you had to stay on the bottom and at an angle but it was great fun. We saw several spotted eagle rays and jackfish, triggers and once in open water LOTS of black tip sharks.

4- Rose Garden - The temps are as usual and the vis was 100+, we started the dive with many black tips and as we hit the deck at about 70ft a large gray shark followed along side of us for a while and when he left the first two Lemon sharks came in one of them was about 14ft and liked to come very close, shocking at first. As we continued three more came up and stayed with us but when we came over the garden I forgot all about them, what a beautiful view simply breath taking. We had a couple of inexpereanced divers with us and the dive master kept us above 100ft and I really wanted to drop down (I think the deck is 135ft) but it was great anyway. The Lemon sharks stayed most of the rest of the dive and when they left the hoard of black tips returned. There was the usual fish but no turtles or rays. This was one of the top dives I have done, GREAT !!

5- Coral Wall - Same temps and the vis was 80+ slight current and it was simply a great dive. There were the same fish but more of all of them, turtles. moray eels, rays and a school of fish that looked like barracuda only they had no stripes, Anemone fish along with a field of very large Anemones, lionfish, toadfish, rockfish and you guessed it many sharks. I saw more coral here than on any dive but not a lot but still this was a great dive.

To sum it up if you like sharks THIS IS THE SPOT ! The reefs are in sad shape as far as coral goes but the animal life is still very good so in my opinion the diving is good in most spots and simply GREAT in some, if you go there do not miss the Coral Wall and Rose Garden.
If you have any questions ask here or PM me, if I can I will answer them.

[mrm777]

Thanks for remembering to post a report....lots of good info, much appreciated.