Tumakohua (South Pass) — South Pass

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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the South Pass location page.

Overview

Narrow pass on the south end of Fakarava atoll with a permanent resident population of several hundred grey reef sharks — the famed 'wall of sharks' is biggest in July around the grouper spawning. Easy drift in clean tide-controlled water.

Briefing note

Grouper spawning in late June/early July is one of the world's most concentrated shark gatherings.

What you'll see

4 species curated

Grey reef shark
year-round
Camouflage grouper
seasonal
Peak: Jun · Jul
Marbled grouper
year-round
Schooling barracuda
year-round

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Grey reef shark
high confidence
Last confirmed
May 2026
Recent records
408 within 15 km
Cluster months
Jun, Jul, Aug
June–July full-moon aggregation is the densest documented in French Polynesia.

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	28–29 °C	25–40 m	strong
Feb	28–29 °C	25–40 m	strong
Mar	28–29 °C	25–40 m	strong
Apr	27–29 °C	25–40 m	strong
May	27–28 °C	25–40 m	strong
Jun	26–28 °C	25–40 m	strong
Jul	26–27 °C	25–40 m	strong
Aug	26–27 °C	25–40 m	strong
Sep	26–28 °C	25–40 m	strong
Oct	27–28 °C	25–40 m	strong
Nov	27–29 °C	25–40 m	strong
Dec	28–29 °C	25–40 m	strong

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

SMB — Standard drift surface exit.
Reef hook — Hook in mid-channel and watch hundreds of sharks stream past.

Next step

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