Bora Bora Scuba Diving

Today I got to go on a 2 tank scuba diving expedition in the crystal clear waters off Bora Bora. This Oceania cruise does not offer scuba diving as an excursion at any port (this first cruise I’ve run into with this problem) so I had to find my own excursion.

The company I ended up with is Bora Bora Dive.  After they picked me up by boat in the Viatape port, we went directly to the first dive site.  The first dive was outside of the reef that surrounds Bora Bora so we could see some sharks.

Unfortunately that dive was much too deep for my underwater camera so I had to leave it behind.   While we didn’t see as many sharks as my first Tahiti dive a few years ago, we did see 2 black-tipped reef sharks and 1 lemon shark.  The Lemon Shark was big and scared me for a second.  It was my favorite of the two dives.

The shallower dive inside the reef was so we could see the giant manta rays.

But first a scuba selfie:

I’m always quicker than everyone else getting into my scuba diving gear so I have a lot of time to tool around in the water before going down the rope.

There wasn’t as many fish in the shallow water but the point of the dive was to see the eagle rays.

These clam shells sponge things (no clue what they are called!) were my favorites of the day.

We dove down about 30 meters which is way too deep for my camera (only supposed to go down 10 meters).  The camera lived to tell the tale but the deep water shots didn’t turn out as nice as the shallow shots.

The eagle rays showed up after a few minutes.  The group stayed low to the bottom of the ocean and waited for them to pass over us.  The rays never went directly over us but it got close.  Close enough where my dive guide was worried about my fingers as I was taking photos.  Apparently the rays like to munch on tourists fingers.

A bunch of manta rays swan by a few times.  Neat!

After about 15 minutes of manta ray viewing the group headed back to shallower reefs seeking more fish, coral, and sea life.

Scuba diving opens the underwater world to people, much more so than snorkeling.  The sea creatures are more diverse and usually diving groups are much smaller than snorkeling groups.

But whatever you like best can be great fun in Bora Bora.  Parts of the bay are so shallow you can stand up if swimming in the ocean makes you nervous.  And because there are less tourists, there are more reefs and more fish than you will find in much of the Caribbean.

If you ever get to Bora Bora, make sure you spend some time underwater visiting the sharks, rays, fish, and reefs.