Like A Dream

This dreamy moment was captured at the infamous Mo’orea lagoon sandbar where blacktip reef sharks and stingrays gather. A tourism-heavy site centered around shark and ray feeding, I was selected as the field biologist for a study monitoring the impact of COVID19 lockdown and the effect on shark behavior as a result of the first cessation of feeding in decades. I spent all day, every day at this sandbar in the lagoon for 3 consecutive weeks documenting the shark’s behavior and compiling a photo-identification database of the population. After two months spent confined to my home during the lockdown (which is just in front of this spot), it felt like a dream laying submerged beneath the surface on the white sand watching the sharks pass by. The kind of solitude and social distancing you could really appreciate. A place to let go of the chaos happening above and let the quiet wash over you. It’s been six years since I first immersed in the turquoise hues of this magic spot in the lagoon. And it still feels like a dream every. single. time.

SHARK ID: CM17M SIZE: 1.2 M SEX: MALE