Each one bringing his stone to the building, a member took the initiative to ask directly to the DRM what was the situation of the moorings currently on Moorea. His message was transferred to the Commune of Moorea, in particular to the persons in charge of the Maritime Pole and thus of the PGEM.

Here is what it comes out.
Concerning the mooring on Moorea, the general orientations are :

"Article 11. - Anchoring

Anchoring is defined as :

The action of immobilizing a vessel at sea by means of an anchor, using the apparatuses[i] of anchoring (chains, humps, windlass or capstan...) ;
Permanent mooring consisting of a float (buoy or trunk), held in a fixed position by a mooring body placed on the bottom, in a sheltered place;

Except in cases of force majeure or when the boat is used for fishing purposes, anchoring from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. is forbidden in the entire lagoon outside of the zones dedicated to anchoring as provided for in articles 50 and 51.

The anchoring of any boat is only authorized on sandy bottoms. The anchor and the chain must not touch coral, even if it is isolated.
Anchoring is prohibited in the marked navigation channels, except in cases of force majeure.

III. Vessels with toilets must be equipped with a wastewater recovery system and biodegradable detergents.

No waste, even biodegradable, must be thrown into the water. Wastewater must be discharged in accordance with the regulations in force. Onshore services are provided to ensure the management of waste and wastewater (???).

The vessel must be seaworthy with the ability to maneuver and be properly guarded and monitored."

To date, the organized anchorage areas seem to have been defined and placed on maps (those of the quotas?) and the functioning of each of them must be specified (duration of anchorage, type of anchorage, fees?) with the assistance of the Polynesian Directorate of Maritime Affairs (DPAM) in order to transfer this ministerial decree into "loi Pays" (= official conutry's law).

So for the moment, there are no authorized anchorage areas managed by the Municipality in Moorea.
A last precision, and not the least, would stipulate that in any case, the text which remains applicable for the moment concerning the parking is defined by the decree n°1211 AU of 24/08/1983.
Yes, you read it right ... 1983 !

So here it is: Order n° 1211 AU of 24_08_1983

We already find this denomination against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Citizen "The parking of floating homes is prohibited on the territorial public maritime domain outside of authorized areas". So be it.

But what about this famous 48-hour limitation? It is not mentioned here in any case.
Where does it come from ?
It appears in the decree n°410 CM of 21/10/2004. But apart from a so-called "tacit" implementation that was instituted between the Municipality and the boaters, no information on the return of fines for the offenders has been found. This is why the approach of the new PGEM, certainly released by the Order No. 2009 CM of 10/09/2021, seems to want to go further by simply passing the PGEM in "Country law", in order to be able to certainly foresee a Nautical Brigade being able to verbalize.

If this remains as it is and if it is applied, good luck to this "Brigade" to manage the logistics of the anchorages, but above all it will be necessary to define the responsibilities in case of danger if the "Brigade" forces a sailboat to leave an anchorage when the weather is not good, or when it is going to be dark, or when there is an engine problem, or...

SORRY IF THE TRANSLATION IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD, THE SUBJECT AND THE TEXT ARE COMPLEX.

Following the publication of an article in La Dépêche de Tahiti of October 4, 2021 and thanks to the kind authorization and transmission of the results of the study by Pierre Ghewy, we publish their analysis and thoughts on the subject, in agreement and partnership with the authors.

This study of the Polynesian population's awareness of yachting and boaters is the result of a collaborative effort with students of the Licence 3 Économie-Gestion of the University of French Polynesia (UPF). It was produced as part of their Market Studies course. To carry out the study, they wrote the problematic, the questionnaire, administered it and finally analyzed the collected data1.
In the years to come, this study could be repeated to establish a barometer and thus follow the evolution of the elements measured.

Boaters are tourists in their own right. They arrive from abroad, stay in French Polynesia and, like all "normal" tourists, those arriving by plane, they consume various products: local crafts, food, clothing, entertainment (leisure, restaurants, hotels, activities, air transport), maintenance of their sailboat, etc. A study by the Association des Voiliers de Polynésie (AVP) recently estimated that their contribution to the country is equivalent to 4.77 billion francs2 per year. However, they are insulted, threatened, assaulted (at least two injured in Huahine in 2021), their equipment is damaged (cut mooring lines3 or lacerated dinghies) 4 and one death5 , admittedly accidental, has already occurred.
The only difference with the traditional tourist, who arrives by plane, is that the yachtsman comes with his house and locates it where he wishes. What is the Polynesian resident's view of this particular tourist and what are the determinants? These are the questions that this work attempts to answer.

A first question asked seeks to determine the overall positioning of respondents with respect to boating 6.

Surprisingly, compared to the news cited above, opinions are rather neutral on the subject7 . This apparent neutrality, however, hides very different and stronger opinions: 15.1% are very much in favor of recreational boating compared to 9.5% who are very much against it.

Another question, "Do you wish they (boaters) would leave the lagoon?", receives a similar response: fairly neutral (mean: 4.24), but also with strong extremes: 12.3% of respondents are absolutely opposed to the idea of boaters leaving the lagoon while 20.5% absolutely want them to leave.

These initial results suggest that a minority of people who are strongly hostile to boating and boaters are leading the rest of the population to protest against sailboats.

"Polluters profiteering too much"

Other questions seek to identify more precisely the image that residents have of boaters in French Polynesia8 . This one is rather negative. They are mainly considered as "too many polluters". Again, the majority of respondents are rather neutral towards this image: 4.81 on a scale of 1 to 7. As with the previous measures, a minority (11%) adheres completely to this image.

The visual pollution of sailboats is often cited in the media and in social networks, yet, surprisingly, the fact of seeing or not seeing sailboats from one's home does not influence the image of the boater. Whether or not they see them all day long, respondents have the same view of sailboats. In fact, two elements influence the image of the boater : the respondent's archipelago of residence and his involvement in the environment.

Negative image of boaters according to location

Concerning the place of residence, in decreasing order, the most negative image is in the Tuamotus (5.82 on a scale of 1 to 7), the Marquesas, Leeward Islands and Moorea are almost equal (between 5.08 and 5.05 on a scale of 7). Tahiti, where the greatest concentration of sailboats is located, is only in fifth place (4.79). Boaters are the least disliked in the Austral Islands (4.04 - neutral position on the scale of 1 to 7). Thus, all the archipelagos, to different degrees, share this negative image of boaters. Does the behavior of boaters vary from one archipelago to another or is it the tolerance threshold of the residents that varies?

Involvement in the environment

Concerning the involvement in the environment, the second element influencing the image that Polynesian residents have of sailboats, the more the respondents feel concerned, the more negative the image they have of sailboats. This finding seems quite logical since pollution by wastewater discharge (dishes and toilets) is also blamed on boaters. This last point leads us to question the ranking of the elements likely to pollute the lagoon asked to the respondents. One question in the study consisted in asking the respondents to classify, according to their polluting power, the elements mentioned. The ranking of these elements, in decreasing order according to the number of times they are cited first, gives the following results :

- yacht wrecks (110 first quotes, 28.2% of respondents)
- Poor sewage treatment in homes (80, 20.5%)
- Island housing (60 first quotes, 15.4% of respondents)
- the infrastructure for pleasure boating (47, 12.1%)
- hotels (40, 10.3%)
- Sailing boats in the lagoon (25, 6.4%)
- agriculture (20, 5.1%)
- professional fishing (6, 1.5%).

Sailboats in good condition, those that float, finally rank only 6th in terms of polluting elements, after hotels, houses and poor treatment of wastewater from houses. Through their answers, the respondents indicate that they consider that their houses have a more polluting power than sailing boats.

These results thus indicate that, in the same way that it seems that a minority of respondents are very hostile to boating and boaters, it seems that a minority of boaters, the ones who let their sailboat wither and sink in the lagoon, are perceived as very polluting. This is probably an exaggerated behavior that exacerbates the tensions between the two communities.

Correlation with bathing water quality

This ranking of the elements polluting the lagoon is consistent with the results of the bathing water quality study published annually by the Ministry of Health 9 :

According to this map, water quality problems are concentrated at river mouths. As this report states, "Of the 16 points monitored in 2019 none are suitable for bathing compared to 11% in 2018. The quality of bathing water at river mouths remains a major concern whether in urban areas (100% in poor quality in 2018 and 2019) or rural areas (100% in poor quality in 2019 compared to 78% in 2018). The report points out the deficiency of wastewater treatment. The facilities are often outdated or inadequate.The sailboats are concentrated in front of the marina Taina and the airport ... in blue zone: good quality water.

In spite of this information, the strongest opposition to yachting comes from those who think that sailboats, yachting infrastructures and wrecks of sailboats pollute the lagoon the most. If these people want to protect Polynesian lagoons by chasing away sailboats, they are obviously in the wrong business. But, as social psychologists demonstrate through theories of causal attribution, it can be easier to blame our actions on other people or external events, rather than taking responsibility for them.10

Too many and polluting ?

Among the attributes that have helped define the image of the boater, the strongest criticism leveled at them is that they are too numerous. Without mentioning the 36-month Route, the current upsurge of sailboats in the lagoon comes from the fact that, during the 2020 containment, the government of French Polynesia asked boaters to come to the Tahitian lagoon. This was to avoid the spread of the virus in the islands. As no infrastructure was put in place to welcome them, they were forced to "crowd" where they could...

The second strong attribute of the negative image of boaters among the population is that they are "polluters, responsible for the degradation of the lagoons (broken corals, waste water and motor oil discharges)". Concerning the corals, boaters do not put their anchor in the corals for pleasure. An anchor in the corals will be damaged, even blocked. It will then be necessary to dive to untie it or to lose it with its chain. The best and safest anchorage remains the sand. Concerning waste water. Yachtsmen are often blamed for polluting the lagoon with their organic waste (toilets, food scraps, etc.). Modern sailboats and some older ones are now equipped with black water tanks that allow them to discharge this wastewater outside the lagoon, in the open sea, or in marinas equipped for this recovery. This poses the problem of investment in the reception infrastructure. The respondents who most criticize sailboats for polluting are also the most opposed to investments to improve their reception and reduce these possible discharges11. The majority of boaters have made the investments to reduce this nuisance. This last argument, that of organic pollution, should lose its force when we know that, in normal periods, excluding Covid-19, only 26 sailboats are inhabited year-round at the Taina marina. How many motorboats are concentrated every weekend on the sandbar of the Tepuahono reef, near the Ta'apuna channel, to go on a binge... and without any toilets!

So, are boaters the unloved ones of tourism?
The above results show that all the criticisms made of them are not always justified or shared by the population as a whole. However, these criticisms are attributed to them and degrade their image. In two separate surveys, carried out by the same Bachelor 3 students, similar questions to describe the behavior of respondents towards tourists on the one hand and boaters on the other hand, describe different behaviors. The behavioral score for tourists was 6.12, compared to 5.42 for boaters. Again, the scale is 7 points. In both cases, the behavior is benevolent but the tourist is still rated higher than the boater.

Other questions were asked to evaluate the attitude not towards the person, tourist or boater, but towards the activity, tourism or boating. In this case, the opinions are clearer: +1.12 for tourism versus -1.30 for pleasure boating. These two measures are on a scale of -6 to +6.

The broader issue of tourism

One possible explanation for these differences may be that these two activities do not have the same visibility. Tourists, even if they are numerous, often stay in the hotels where they stay. These hotels are equipped for this purpose. They have enough to lodge them, of course, but also to feed and entertain them. Few tourists leave these structures. We sometimes see some of them in the back of the pick-up trucks that take them to visit Papenoo or other remarkable places of the country, but this remains marginal. As for the sailboats, they are in the lagoon, visible to everyone. They are a bit like those Airbnb tourists, more visible than hotel tourists. After spending the night in their accommodation, Airbnb tourists come out to meet the population. A study published in 2020 showed that the two indicators mentioned above, behavior towards tourists and attitude towards tourism, both tended to decline before the Covid-19 crisis. We were at about 240,000 tourists per year.

The bottom line

Another important numerical fact shows that the results of the explanatory analyses are particularly interesting since they indicate the real reasons for the rejection of boaters: the respondents reject the other (the boater) because he is not (culturally) like them and, economically, does not bring them anything. The environmental factor, often put forward to justify a negative attitude towards boating and boaters, is indeed noted as an element justifying this behavior, but it is weaker than culture and economy. The environment would therefore only be a pretext to hide other motivations.

Concerning the last position of the respondent ("the lagoon belongs to everyone"), the analysis of the detail of the answers is interesting with regard to the current events around the PGEM of Moorea.

In decreasing order of lagoon sharing, the ranking is as follows: Tuamotu (average: 2.71); Austral Islands (my: 1.19); Leeward Islands (my: 1.14); Tahiti (my: 0.53) and Moorea (my: 0.35). The Marquesas Islands having no lagoon are not taken into account in this ranking.
The inhabitants of Moorea have the strongest feeling of belonging to their lagoon. They are, in all Polynesia, the ones who consider that the lagoon belongs above all to the inhabitants of the island and not to everybody. They do not want to share. Add to that Mr. Le Maire who feels obliged to follow what the population wants (article in the Dépêche of 11/10/2021), but he is, in fact, only following the wishes of a minority of people (on average around 15 - 20%) "extremists" with strong ideas about yachting ... and you get the PGEM 2021 in the process of being formalized.

In any case, it appears from this work that the respondents, residents of French Polynesia, distinguish the activity from the person. They reject the boating activity but, except for the exceptional cases mentioned in the introduction, not the boater. Not yet.

1  390 résidents ont été interrogées en vis-à-vis, principalement à Tahiti, Moorea, Îles-sous-le vent et Australes. La distribution hommes/femmes, dans l’échantillon, est représentative de la population.

2  Pinel-Peschardière E. (2020), « Etude d’impact de la plaisance sur l’économie de la Polynésie française ».

3  Teriiteporouarai T. et Vesco J. (2021), « Raiatea : la plainte pour dégâts sur un voilier échoue au tribunal », Polynésie la 1^ère, 21 février. https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/polynesie/raiatea/raiatea-la-plainte-pour-degats-sur-un-voilier-echoue-au-tribunal-941071.html

4  Rofes J. (2021), « Huahine – Les agressions sur les voiliers s’accentuent », La Dépêche de Tahiti, 22 avril. https://actu.fr/polynesie-francaise/huahine_98724/huahine-les-agressions-sur-les-voiliers-s-accentuent_41280619.html

5  Réné C. (2020), « Moorea : mort d’un jeune baigneur percuté par une embarcation », Radio 1.pf, 10 août. https://www.radio1.pf/moorea-mort-dun-jeune-baigneur-percute-par-une-embarcation/

6  74,3, en moyenne, sur une échelle de 1 à 7 ; 1 = opposé et 7 = favorable ; 42,1% des répondants se positionnent sur la modalité de réponse neutre, 4.

8  L’image obtenue est le résultat de la factorisation de différentes questions abordant cette image sous des angles différents.

9  Rapport CHSP "Qualité bactériologique des eaux de baignade" • Publié le 25 mai 2020 à 15h31, mis à jour le 26 mai 2020 à 20h13 : https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/polynesie/qualite-eaux-baignades-leger-progres-836292.html

10  Heider F. (1958), « The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations », John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Kansas, USA.

11   Corrélation significative (Sig. = 0,000) et négative (corrélation de Pearson = -0,222) entre la question concernant les rejets (« Les voiliers polluent les lagons (rejet d’huile de moteur et des eaux usées : toilettes, vaisselle, déchets alimentaires) ») et la question sur le besoin d’investissement pour mieux accueillir les plaisanciers (« Le gouvernement devrait investir plus pour l’accueil des plaisanciers (corps morts, marinas, zones de carénage, etc) »).

12   Ghewy P. (2020), « Bientôt fiu des touristes ? », Tahiti Infos, 16/02/2020. https://www.tahiti-infos.com/Bientot-fiu-des-touristes_a188903.html

AND WHAT ABOUT COMMON SENSE ?
PGEM vs. State of Health Emergency : lucid indignation.

This new confinement in French Polynesia (but is it really a confinement when we see that the only reason for a waiver certificate of displacement that is not listed is: "to go and see the buddies"!) has inevitably had its share of nonsense.
About a week after the date of August 23, 2021 (entry in the confinement), the firstquestions raised by boaters, notably Anglo-Saxons, appeared on the social networks: around Moorea, the Municipal Police asked them to move their sailboat because of the 48 hours limit in authorized anchorage on sand as mandated by the PGEM.

However, during the previous containment of 2019, around Moorea, the Municipal Police had indeed come to see the sailboats at anchor to inform them that the PGEM was suspended and that the containment, as an exceptional measure, prevailed. It was then compulsory to stay on anchor and not to move ("We tolerate that you splash around your sailboat." ... different confinement, different rules).
How is the current situation different?
Why should sailboats in Moorea be allowed to move around the island while the population is confined? I don't even specify "land population", as if the two had to be differentiated in a Manichean vision. Intolerable and inconceivable.
Because until proven otherwise, sailors are indeed part of the wider population of French Polynesia, so it would seem that they are subject to confinement, no?

Of course, civic-mindedness and common sense are everyone's business. Some sailboats also move of their own free will. Were a boater decide to move despite the prohibition, it may be his choice, but he knows he may be liable to a fine or worse . On the other hand, the fact that an authority, even a local one, forces them to move during the confinement is a matter of concern.

The administrative process to get an answer from the competent authorities has confirmed what common sense would suggest. The Adviser for the action of the State at sea (Part of the command of the maritime zones of French Polynesia and Pacific Ocean) as well as the Administrator of the maritime affairs and Deputy to the head of the service of the maritime affairs of Polynesia clearly answered me NO to the movements around Moorea, confirming this would be contrary to the rules of confinement.

Therefore, what to think of the decision of the Moorea's Township ?
The mayor of Moorea, whose vision of the world has become even more elegant, perhaps did not understand the statutes of a confinement or maybe he had other ideas in mind. This man has the merit of constancy in any case.
My investigation did not stop there because when I contacted the Polynesian Directorate of Maritime Affairs, I was told that I could not be given an answer for the moment because the Director had made a request to the High Commission to know if the State of Emergency took precedence over the PGEM!
In other words, the DPAM does not know if the PGEM of the small township of Moorea is less important than a State of Health Emergency decreed by the French State?
It seems obvious to me that any citizen is able to question this logic, isn't it?

Each one, according to his look at life, is free to judge this action of the Commune of Moorea. Some may applaud, others may be indignant, many may not care.
It is easy to imagine the reaction of the residents living by the sea or on high ground, seeing sailboats moving in the lagoon or around Moorea. They are confined but not the boaters? Do they know, for one moment, that many of these boaters were "forced" to move?

That's all it takes for dozens of "public prosecutors on social networks" to pour out their usual poetry on the "sailors". But here again, the debate is unfortunately distorted. And it will not be necessary to wait for an official and public denial of the State towards the Mayor of Moorea.
The damage will have been done. Let us dare to believe that it was not a deliberate maneuver of this Mayor.

"Because, in the end, the major risk is that everything ends up being the same, that the amalgam prevails and that the confusion overwhelms the minds. Short-sighted politicians are only waiting for that, to blur our disgust, to smooth our resistances; let's not make them this offer and let's be discriminating for once.
Lucid indignation is the surest defence. *

a sailor who is fed up

* Cédric Sapin-Defour - February 10, 2019

Reflection following the three publications on two wrecks of sailing ships in Taravao (Presqu'île de Tahiti) and Pao Pao (Moorea)
Articles from Polynésiela1ère, La Dépêche de Tahiti and Tahiti Infos.

WARNING: the AVP does not support in any way these wrecks of abandoned sailboats, on the contrary, and does not seek to exonerate their owners (most often residents and not "foreigners passing through" who abandon their boat); the fact of leaving one's sailboat abandoned and letting other people worry about it is an irresponsible and unacceptable act

At the AVP, the debate has been invited lately on whether or not to put these three articles online, which clearly do not make a good advertisement for yachting in Polynesia. And yet, it seems that we have to talk about it.

Not to defend this kind of indefensible, odious and intolerable act for any good citizen who respects himself, or even for any good eco-citizen who respects himself.
No ... unfortunately, the need to talk about it is once again insidiously linked to the generalization that is made of a subject and especially the lack of a systemic vision of this same subject.

As we know, currently, "bashing boaters" is a fashionable pastime. So yes, to be indignant about these two cases of wrecks is normal and everybody is obviously in agreement on the subject ... but why then "to shoot in the dark" on the whole of the yachting industry when it concerns only some very particular cases?

Oh yes ... of course ... these wrecks are visible to everyone!

But what about the numerous car wrecks in the valleys, sometimes even covered with vegetation because they have been there for so long?

We see them much less than the sailboats, it is true ... so it is so much easier to forget them. We don't see them, so everything is fine. So, from there to imagine that they can pollute ... impossible!

Yes, the wrecks of these two sailboats (and there are others) represent a big pollution concern, but why only talk about these sailboats? The various associations are getting up to arms, scandalized by these sailboats (and rightly so!), but not by the numerous car wrecks?

Don't tell me that there are no more batteries, no more oil, no more fuel, no more toxicity in these cars... I will snicker softly.

Do we have to explain again the possible pollution, far from being negligible, of these cars that will reach the ground, then the water table and then inevitably the lagoon?

"It pollutes the sea, and it's not a pretty sight! It pollutes the sea, and it's not a pretty sight," said one resident.

"We are afraid for the children, for the fishermen. [...]. There is oil, batteries. It sucks! "

"[...] has been threatening the surrounding marine biodiversity for three months. "

These excerpts from an article seem to me quite appropriate for the problem of car wrecks on the valley floor too, don't they? Whether the biodiversity is marine or terrestrial, we must protect it.

Obviously, we have to manage these wrecks, but please, take the problem as a whole: whether it is a "sailboat" or a "car" wreck, the root of the problem is ecological and affects all citizens. It is not the trial of boating that must be done, but the trial of individual incivilities. As this article from February 2018 reminds us, with in particular the interview of the President of the AVP on this subject at the bottom of the article.
In addition, it should also be remembered that the vast majority of sailboats are in good condition and are most often insured by their owners.

For the sake of completeness, it is necessary to point out the initiatives of some municipalities and even of the Territory, to tackle the problem of these carcasses, especially from 2014 to 2016. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to be done ... and not much is missing to make it possible for the wrecks of sailboats.
Article Polynésiela1ère - Articles Tahiti Infos 1 and 2 - Article LaDépêche

This is why projects such as "L'atelier'Ecup du Fenua", whose initiative is to remove wrecks on land and sea at a lower cost, must be supported and helped by the Territory, by associations such as the AVP, by the communes, ... It is up to each one to make their own eco-responsible decisions.

Already in 2019, the AVP had made a file on the possible management of these wrecks.

The AVP has been asking for years for the implementation of a "Cruising permit" (a tax), which would allow the financing of this "depollution" in part. It is time for the government to set up this tax in order to be able to activate the financial means ... as apparently the legal side is solved because they seem to be able to deprive the ownership of a ship in one month.

the little hummingbird of the AVP

A dramatic accident occurred on August 9, 2020 in Moorea. A young boy, living on a sailboat and swimming nearby, was killed by a speeding motorboat. In reaction, the authorities... decide to chase sailboats away from the most popular anchorage of the island! Explaining a heresy.

(August 23, 2020 - By William Wallace - Blog: William Wallace's blog - MEDIAPART BLOG)

Tahiti, Bora Bora, Moorea, these names make you dream ? If you have the desire to stay there, then prepare yourself for a cruel disillusionment.

The reality, since a few years, is quite different from the image that everyone keeps of these once paradisiacal islands: frantic traffic, endless traffic jams during rush hour in Papeete, omnipresent beggars in the city center, pollution without equivalent from cruise ships, poor quality of imported food, exorbitant cost of living, delinquency and drug trafficking, sale of alcohol regulated on weekends due to innumerable brawls and violence, record rate of domestic violence, starving stray dogs on every street corner, such is the daily life of an ordinary Tahitian.

What happened to the wahines with their dreamy bodies and charming smiles who used to come and play the ukulele on the beach to welcome the newcomers? They disappeared a long time ago. 70% of the population is overweight and almost 50% is obese.