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One grey shark with dark-edged fins swimming through open blue water, seen from below with the rippled surface above — Bora Bora

Bora Bora · French Polynesia · Wall · Reef

Tapu

Large resident lemon sharks on the slope outside the pass

Area photo: The original uploader was Dlloyd at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tapu is an ocean dive on the coral drop-off outside the pass, named after the motu used to locate it. It is one of the best-known sites of Bora Bora, and divers come for the large lemon sharks that live on the slope, with blacktip sharks, Napoleon wrasse and turtles around them.

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Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Tapu: typical dive to 40 m (to 130 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit40 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 50 m (164 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

16.5043° S, 151.7766° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.

The dive

Divers descend from the mooring at about 9 m (30 ft) onto the top of the drop-off that runs down from the pass exit. Lemon sharks hold on the slope, and blacktip sharks, humphead Napoleon wrasse, moray eels and turtles move along the coral face, which falls away to 40 m (130 ft).

Marine life and season

  • Lemon sharks
  • Reef sharks
  • Napoleon wrasse
  • Sea turtles
Month-by-month season rating for Tapu
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
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Season follows Bora Bora: The dry May to October months are the high season, though the trade winds sometimes blow strongly; November to April is the wet season.

Dive videos

Bora Bora Tapu in French Polynesia · Brad Ehrhorn on YouTube

Sources

  1. Bora Bora – Diving in the South Sea Paradise — One Million Places
  2. Diving in Bora Bora — Tahiti Tourisme
  3. OpenStreetMap: Motu Tapu — OpenStreetMap

More dive sites in Bora Bora

Reef

Anau

Manta rays coming in to cleaner fish on a slope of rose corals

to 25 mintermediate

Reef

Haapiti

Shallow craters in a gentle drop-off, with blacktip and lemon sharks

to 30 mintermediate

Drift

Muri Muri

Grey reef sharks, tuna and giant barracuda on a drifting plateau

18–37 madvanced

Wall

Toopua

Clownfish in their anemones along a lagoon wall

to 30 mintermediate

Similar dives elsewhere

Wall

Blue Corner

Palau · Palau

Hook into the plateau lip and let the sharks stack up off the edge

8–30 madvanced

Wall

Shark Island

Kosrae · Micronesia

Sharks, barracuda and dog-tooth tuna along a current-swept wall

12–21 madvanced

Wall

Frigates Walls

Beqa Lagoon · Fiji

Vertical outer-reef walls where eagle rays and mobulas pass.

3–30 mintermediate

Wall

Gorgonian Valley

Isle of Pines · New Caledonia

A heart-shaped swim-through inside a forest of gorgonian fans

10–35 m · max 50 madvanced