Ecotours that support Marine Widlife Conservation

The Moorea Ocean Adventures team has a strong background in marine conservation, research and establishing sustainable ecotourism programs here in French Polynesia. During 9 years Matthieu was one of the principle Marine Biologists for one of the local NGO Marine Conservation Societies on Moorea. Matthieu continues his work in conservation, research, education and establishing sustainable ecotourism activities when not busy leading our guests with Trevor on MOA tours.

This same dedication to sustainable ecotourism and marine conservation plays an integral part of every Moorea Ocean Adventures tour. Both Trevor and Matthieu are dedicated to ensuring each tour and interaction follows all the local rules, regulations and guidelines to ensure safe and respectful encounters.

During each tour we offer information about the species we observe. There are information booklets and informational water slates for use identifying the different species we encounter for our guests. We encourage questions, but we never preach. Ultimately our tours are about fun and enjoying a premier snorkeling experience on Moorea. We enjoy sharing our knowledge and experiences with inquisitive guests!

Moorea Ocean Adventures supports and follows all Marine Wildlife interaction rules and regulations. Not only do these rules ensure the safety of our guests, they also ensure protection of marine wildlife species and integrity of the marine habitat for years to come. One thing not everyone realizes is that when following the interaction guidelines, encounters with marine wildlife are more natural, usually last longer and often there are repeated observations.

We ask our guests to respect some rules to ensure the long term health of the Moorea reef and ocean ecosystems: no waste thrown into the sea, using biodegradable ‘reef friendly’ sunscreen, no feeding of the sea animals (only by trained and certified guides), no touching the coral colonies and no collecting of any kind.

Moorea Ocean Adventures collects sighting data for marine species on each and every tour. When you join us, you are supporting our efforts to collect data for the French Polynesian Office of the Environment. This data is used to understand the populations and distribution of marine wildlife here in Moorea. Ultimately, the information helps create the rules and regulations that protect and help conserve our children’s marine wildlife inheritance.

We also help local environmental NGOs as often as we can and specially :

• Te mana o te moana NGO is dedicated to the protection of the polynesian marine environnement: management of a seaturtle clinic, scientific studies about marine life, children awareness, … We’ve help them to release rehabilitated turtles in the wild ocean, providing free tours to their team, sending them pictures for their educational tools and photo-identification projects.

• Coral Gardeners is a NGO composed of local teenagers and young adults with the main goal to restore the damaged coral reefs of French Polynesia. Do not be surprised if we talk a lot about them during our tour as you really should visit their center and the amazing work they do.