Fakarava tide times

Fakarava is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago, approximately 500 kilometres northeast of Tahiti and 200 kilometres southeast of Rangiroa. The atoll has a rectangular shape — 60 kilometres long and 25 kilometres wide — and two passes: Garuae Pass in the north, the widest pass in French Polynesia at approximately 1,600 metres, and Tumakohua Pass in the south, narrower at 200 metres and the subject of one of the most-discussed shark aggregation events in the world.

Garuae Pass carries a flood current of 4 to 6 knots at springs — strong, but manageable for drift diving with an operator familiar with the pass geometry. The walls of Garuae are coral-covered to 40 metres, with large Napoleon wrasse, grouper, and schools of surgeon fish and snapper in the mid-water. The breadth of the pass means the current is distributed over a wider cross-section than at Rangiroa's Tiputa; individual dives can follow the wall rather than being swept entirely by the main channel flow. The pass is diveable on both flood and ebb, with the dive profile adjusted to the current direction.

Tumakohua (South Pass) is the site of the Fakarava shark aggregation. Grey reef sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) gather in the south pass in numbers that have been counted at up to 700 individuals during the grouper spawning aggregation, which occurs at the full moon in June and July. The mechanism: grouper aggregate in the south pass to spawn, concentrated by the tidal current into a dense biomass. The sharks exploit this concentration, patrolling the pass walls in overlapping circuits. The spectacle on the incoming tide — when the grouper are tightest and the sharks are most active — is described by experienced divers as the most intense predator aggregation they have witnessed outside the open ocean.

The tidal regime at Fakarava is mixed semidiurnal, with a spring range of approximately 0.4 to 0.6 metres in the open ocean water around the atoll. The lagoon exchange is driven by this modest range, but the constriction of the passes amplifies the flow dramatically. On the incoming tide, cleaner, denser Pacific water drops under the lighter, warmer lagoon water at the pass mouth, creating a salinity boundary layer visible as a shimmer in the water column — a halocline that is disorienting to visibility through. On the outgoing tide, the turbid lagoon water drains over the outer reef in a visible brown plume from above.

The Fakarava lagoon interior, accessible only by boat, has isolated motu (islet) beaches on the northern rim reachable in 45 minutes from the Rotoava village at the north end. Pearl farming takes place on the inner lagoon in longline culture systems; Fakarava black pearls are among the Tuamotus' commercial outputs. A UNESCO-organised marine research station operates from Rotoava, with a focus on grouper spawning dynamics and the trophic consequences of the shark aggregation.

Accommodation in Fakarava is at pensions in Rotoava (north) and Tetamanu village (south, adjacent to the south pass) — the two ends of the atoll are a significant boat journey apart. Divers visiting Tumakohua Pass from Rotoava face a 45-minute to 1-hour lagoon crossing; accommodation at Tetamanu eliminates this transit.

Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. The local authority for tide information in French Polynesia is the Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM).