July 5-6, 2000.  Moorea, pronounced Moe-oh-rea.

It is the island situated NW of Tahiti, easily seem from it, and is
reacheable from Tahiti by a 30-minute ferry.

Scuba in Moorea is ONE of TWO diving activities scheduled by the
cruiseship's "shore excursions" during this 10-day cruise, with a dive
operator named "M.U.S.T." which according to all reliable sources is a
MUST NOT shop to use.  The fact that the rate is $70 for a "beginner"
type 1-tank dive is beside the point.

So, while I was in Papeete, I purchased a "phone card" (for $10) which
was good for 30 minutes of calls to any of the islands on the
cruiseship's ports-of-call, and booked us a two-tank dive with Moorea
Fun Dive for $78, for the first of two days here, just to check them
out.  BTW, the phone card costs about 28 cents per minute, whereas the
SAME CALLS from the cruiseship cost $12.50 (USD) per MINUTE.

The first of the two-tank dives was a pleasant surprise, at a site
called Opunohu.  Not expecting to see ANY sharks (because this was not
billed as a shark dive), we were greeted by countless blacktip sharks
and quite a few large ramoras looking for sharks larger than the
roving blacktips ranging in length from about 2 feet to 5 feet. There
was no chumming to attract those sharks.  We were just there in their
natural environment.  The spectacle of the other reef fishes were
completely over-shadowed by these ever-circling blacktips reminiscent
of the white tip sharks in Cocos Island.

The second dive was done at the Papepoai Lagoon which is a shallow
sand and coral plateau, dropping off to a 60-ft channel.  Both the
topography and vis of this site reminded me of the German Channel in
Palau.  The visibility was poor (25 feet), but we did see two clusters
of anemones with large and small clownfishes, bumphead parrotfish,
clown and other triggerfish, multi-colored trumpet and cornet fish,
and many other Pacific reef fishes too numerous to enumerate.

The next day, we decided to forego the 2nd dive so that we can get
back to the ship before 2 pm, the end of the lunch hour.  It was the
site Tiki, very similar in landscape and coral formation to the
Opunohu, but at the deeper part of the sloping dropoff, we saw many
grey reef sharks in addition to the blacktips.

All in all, I rate the diving in Moorea as excellent, in spite of the
fact that there was no wall with a vertical drop and none of my dives
exceeded 76 fsw.

July 5: Opunohu:  76 fsw (49 minutes BT);
        Papetoai: 60 fsw (48 minutes BT).

July 6  Tiki: 73 fsw (49 minutes BT)

-- Bob.