North Pass (Garuae)

The pass is dived on the flood. Ocean water pushes into the lagoon through a channel 1.37 km wide - the largest in French Polynesia - and for safety and visibility the dives are run at slack water or on the inflowing current, from the ocean side inwards. The working depth is around 15 to 21 m. The standard move is to hook into the reef and hold there while the water does the work: experienced divers watching from the hook see sharks riding the current past them in the hundreds, and grey reef sharks cruise the pass entrance by the dozen.

At slack water the channel is dived differently, as a range of separate sites rather than one continuous run, with the drift setting in once the tide turns and pushes inward. Garuae is rich in marine fauna beyond the sharks - rays including mantas, barracuda, groupers, turtles and dolphins are all reported in it, and the Ali Baba canyon inside the pass is where the fish gather to shelter from the current. Fakarava's southern pass lies about 60 km away at the other end of the atoll, so the two are dived as separate trips.