By Sean
I wanted to share my Moorea snorkeling trip report with a few pictures I took there. I commented on this French Polynesia trip report that I would report back when I returned.
We snorkeled in Moorea almost every day for a week in March 2024. The motu at Coco Beach was fun, with lots of sharks and rays at the beach. You walk with water shoes from Coco Beach to the right around where some boats are moored.
We stayed at Manava Beach Resort. While coral was definitely not a highlight there, the reef drop-off had some good sightings, including turtles, the occasional shark, morays poking out from under overwater bungalows, and a decent amount of fish. The shallow lagoon had triggerfish, parrotfish, and juvenile fish. One day an octopus swam under the glass panel of our bungalow.
We also snorkeled at Taahiamanu Beach. There was interesting structure with some decent fish and turtles.
We took a snorkel tour that visited a shark/ray sandbar that was very cool. He also took us to the less visited west side and there were wow healthy live corals over there. We did a guided snorkel through lots of variety of corals with many juvenile fish and other life. There were bright pink, yellow, and purple corals of all different types. It was great to see areas doing so well.
Thank you for your report. Did you go to Temae Beach at the Sofitel? Excellent snorkeling from the beach just further out close to the reef, totally swimable. Did you meet up with The Coral Gardeners? They are doing great work and have live cams at their restoration site and nursery. Seeing your photos makes me want to go back.