Today we arrived at Flint Island. Flint Island is 400 miles from Tahiti, and 120 miles from Millennium Atoll. Since Flint is so remote, it has very little to no fishing, and is highly pristine. We went through two days at sea to get here, but it was definitely worth it.
At around 9:00 a.m. I went snorkeling along the reef. I saw my second, third, and fourth sharks of the trip – one of which I spotted immediately upon getting in the water. The sea life was very different from all the inhabited spots we’ve been so far. The diversity and quantity of fish was amazing.
I am a big shark fan, so it was a great day for me. Luckily, the sharks were all reef sharks and not great whites, so I didn’t get eaten.
Sadly, the coral wasn’t necessarily as diverse as the coral in Aitotaki, but it seemed super healthy. The sea life was fantastic. In addition to sharks, we saw unicornfish, parrotfish, turtles, and clouds of tiny pink anthias.
After lunch we got to go on a shark snorkeling expedition (shnarkeling). We rode in a Zodiac out away from the reef, and into deep water. The Zodiac ride was fun, because the driver made sure my mom got soaked. Somehow, she was the only wet person on the boat. When we got in the water, there were SO MANY SHARKS! First we saw rainbow runners, which Mike G. assured us meant sharks were close. We followed the school of rainbow runners and soon were swarmed by sharks and barracudas. It was amazing!!!!
Similarly to the snorkeling, all the sharks we saw were either black tipped, white tipped, or grey tipped reef sharks. We got in and out of the Zodiac several times as we hunted for more and more sharknados.
Needless to say, the day was awesome!
