“It’s always an honor to salute His Holiness. I enjoy being without fins with these beauties. I love the connection with them.”
– photo by Denis Grosmaire, a shark diver and conservationist from Tikehau, French Polynesia
Captain and guide at sea, Denis grew up his entire life at the ocean. He is passionate about the marine world and especially about sharks and deep freediving. He is the president of the Tore Tore association for the protection of sharks in French Polynesia. In 2006 Denis worked with the local government to write the first shark regulation in French Polynesia. Today, French Polynesia is the largest shark sanctuary in the world.
Due to media and movies, sharks have the reputation of being a human super-killer. As a result, people continue to believe this and fear the unloved animal. The bigger problem is that 100 million sharks are killed every year for chinese shark fin soup, which is a disaster for the whole planet.
Because the shark is a totem animal in the Ma’ohi culture, we believe that protecting sharks means protecting our culture. Polynesian culture is rich in mythology and legends, where our ancestors always protected the sharks.
We believe that shark diving is a very important part of shark conservation – it is a way to change the negative perception that people have of sharks because in order to approach a shark one needs to understand them first.
