Shark Feeding in Tahiti

One of the more popular adventurous activities throughout the Polynesian islands
is shark and Ray watching. This activity used to be known as 'shark and ray feeding', because that is essentially what you will be doing- watching the animals
feed. There are many different ways of doing this, each particular to the experienced feeder's own style.

Most shark
and ray feeding is done in shallow waters, with the viewers nearby at a safe distance utilizing snorkeling equipmentShark feeding has become a rather well known scuba activity for all Polynesian Islands, and in the case of Moorea, it has developed to an extreme over the years due to 2 particular divers having pioneered and mastered this rather impressive and seemingly scary underwater shark encounter.


Dive and the founder of Bathy's Bernard Begliomini began experimenting with Shark feeding behavior back as early as 1985, and consequently passed the knowledge down to their other, well trained divemasters.

From there, other divemasters caught on, and now it's a virtual diving mainstay among qualified Moorea divemasters. Essentially, it involves taking a large fish carcass down to shark depths, and, after several sharks (well accustomed to this by now) gather round, cutting it up and hand feeding them. It's a controlled feeding frenzy, all being viewed by the thrilled scuba diver nearby. (No, you don't get to feed the sharks yourselves...).

For more than 20 years shark feeding is on in French Polynesia though the controversy that regular feeding of sharks will change their natural behavior. The feeding takes place in the same spots where no other water sports are taking place. The way of feeding the sharks differ from island to island.

Shark feeding is arguably quite safe, due to the fact that its been done thousands of times over with nary an injury, and also due to the fairly predictable behavior of the resident sharks. It is, however, a major thrill to any diver, especially those that haven't had the chance to encounter good sized sharks underwater (average size is between 3-5 feet, and for Lemon sharks, 9-12 feet!). Of course, there's always a detailed briefing and question and answer class pre-viewing the entire adventure back at diving headquarters before you get to accompany the sharkfeeders and experience this wild adventu