To better organize vessel reception in French Polynesia’s lagoons, recreational sailors must now register their sailboats to anchor in certain frequented areas. A pilot phase is underway until December 31, 2025.

Registering to anchor in French Polynesia’s lagoons: this is the new rule being tested since June 30, 2025, with the Escales system. After cruise ships and yachts, recreational sailboats are now experimenting with this reservation and mooring management platform. The stakes are high: addressing increased maritime traffic, limiting unauthorized anchoring, protecting fragile corals, and easing growing tensions between users and local residents.

The areas covered by this pilot phase are Tahiti (West Taiarapu), Raiatea, Tahaa, Huahine, and Fakarava. Recreational sailors must create a user account on the escales.gov.pf online service, register their vessel with the necessary administrative and technical information, then reserve their moorings in designated areas.

Simultaneously, ecological anchoring systems will progressively replace traditional moorings. The first ones are planned for West Taiarapu since July 2025, then in Raiatea and Tahaa in early 2026, before broader deployment starting in 2027.

If this experiment proves successful, the system will be generalized, making platform usage mandatory with pricing adapted to mooring zone occupancy to sustainably improve service quality.

This is a full-scale test, therefore, to reconcile the call of the open sea with lagoon preservation. Navigators have six months to adapt to this new set of rules and participate, in their own way, in protecting a unique marine heritage.