Diving with Sharks at Miri-Miri

Diving in French Polynesia is really a fantastic activity as you have the possibility to see a lot of different fishes in amazing underwater diving spots. One of my favorite diving spot is the place called Miri-Miri, because there you have the chance to dive among a lot of sharks, and I really love this….

As soon as we arrived on Raiatea island in French Polynesia, we began the formation to get our diving license as this is an activity you can’t miss when living in a place like that. Of course, you need first to go over the little fear of going deep underwater and get familiar with the basic security rules of diving. As we’re doing this with the diving club of Raiatea (Hemisphere Sub), we always have the assurance that all the security rules are respected.

We often go to the Miri-Miri pass as there are a lot of things to see: it’s a pass between the lagoon and the ocean, and so it’s a place where you can see a lot of fishes and among them, the sharks! Mostly, these are blacktip reef sharks (around 1 – 1,5 meters long), sometimes you can also see whitetip reef sharks (1,5 – 2 meters long) and if you’re lucky even some grey reef sharks (2 – 2,5 meters long).
The first time, it’s really frightening as you can see them from the surface turning around the boat and you must jump in the water! But as the instructors told us that there was no risk, we went over our fear and jumped.
Usually we go down to 25-30 meters and follow the reef barrier. Sometimes, when the waterstream is going outside we jump in the lagoon and follow the stream towards the ocean, other times the stream is going inside, so we jump in the ocean and follow the stream towards the lagoon…

And it’s funny, because once in the water, you can see all theses sharks around you, and the fear disappears slowly. They’re curious about you and make some big circles around the diver group, some even come straight on you but 1 meter before your face they turn around…. very impressing of course and even after a few dives over there, you still have this adrenaline peak when they’re around… but in the same time it’s so exciting, and as they are in fact harmless for men (they’re well feeded, so they’ don’t gonna attack you… but of course you shouldn’t bleed or have some dead fishes hanging around your belt….) you can dive fully secure…

And I really begin to love these sharks: they’re really beautiful in the water, moving fast and with a lot of elegance, an unique face and look when they’re close to you… In the polynesian tradition, the shark was considered as a protector of the seas and was sacred. Men did always live in harmony with them and thus not seing the shark as a danger for people but as the king of the seas. And I really begin to love them….

About the galleries, I had the occasion to shoot with my 3 different underwater cameras: the Fisheye with submarine case, the LC-A+ inside the Krab and the Nikonos V camera (the best underwater camera ever…), so enjoy the shots I made while diving among the sharks at Miri-Miri! :)

written by vicuna on 2010-03-26 #places #underwater #agfa-optima-400 #sharks #danger #diving #fuji-press-800 #excitement #location #fisheye-submarine #krab #shark #deep #lc-a #lomo-x-pro-200 #raiatea-island #nikonos-v #french-polynesia #miri-miri #blacktip-reef-shark