Puaumu

Tags: French Polynesia, Gambier Islands, Puaumu, under water

Date: June 26, 2026

We left Rikitea with the boat full of food once more and headed east, towards the airport island, Totegegie, to find protection from the southeasterly winds. We stayed there until the wind turned more to the east and then headed further north to the small island Puaumu. Like Totegegie it sits at the edge of the lagoon with waves crashing over from the outer side and into the shallow more protected water on the inside.

Here we are looking from the anchorage towards Puaumu:

We took the dinghy ashore to walk along the outer beach:

It's quite rough being covered with broken off pieces of coral:

The snorkeling was great. The waters off Puaumu are dotted with coral heads and the water was mostly clear with good visibility so we dug out the underwater camera so see what we could catch some pictures.

First up is Félicie swimming over a coral head:

Overview of a coral head with lots of different coral creating a maze-like structure full of hiding holes for fish:

The silvery fish swimming just under the surface is a needlefish:

They would often turn up around us at some point during a snorkeling trip. Several are visible on the picture showing Félicie above.

Getting a closer view of the structure of the corals:

The most surprizing things we saw were the clams that sit embedded in the corals with their colorful mantles sticking out. The clams are of the species "small giant clams". They live in symbiosis with photosynthetizing, single-celled dinoflagellate algae that live inside the clam's mantle tissues. The clam delivers a safe environment for the algae to live in and helps them getting exposed to sunlight by extending the mantle during the day. In exchange, the energy created by photosynthesis by the algae is shared with the clam and adult clams allegedly get most of their energy this way.

The mantle comes in many colors, mostly blues and greens but purples and browns are also seen:

The clams are almost invisible if the mantle isn't sticking out because the shell is the same color and surface texture as the corals:

Probably some sort of purple sea sponge growing on the coral:

This small puffer fish of the species solander's toby was happy to pose for photos:

This is also a puffer fish, though much larger. We have not been able to identify the species:

A teardrop butterflyfish:

Branching corals:

A little coral landscape with shrubs growing under a large tree:

Three small giant clams with differently colored mantles:

A bright turquoise one, first with the mantle only partly exposed:

Now with fully exposed mantle:

An achilles tang (part of the surgeonfish family):