Here’s what it’s like to dive through French Polynesia’s shark alley

“Are you ready to see some sharks?” asks my dive guide, Thibault Gachon. His question is rhetorical.

We are preparing to dive off the atoll of Fakarava in French Polynesia’s Tuamotu Archipelago, part of a UNESCO biosphere reserve, where some of the most reliably shark-filled waters in the world await.