Nārama: TAHITI FADWATCH on the science outreach map

Nārama is a project of the University of French Polynesia (UPF), run as a consortium with partners including Ifremer, the Institut Louis Malardé, the CNRS and the IRD. Launched in May 2025 for three years and awarded the "Science avec et pour la société" (Science with and for society) label, it aims to strengthen the dialogue between sciences, cultures and society in French Polynesia.

Julie, the project coordinator, presented Nārama at a meeting we attended. Its activities are aimed at all audiences. Nārama supported the organisation of the 2025 Fête de la science (France's national science festival). It trains researchers in science outreach, introduces secondary school teachers to research and issues calls for citizen science projects, so that citizens can take part in the scientific process.

It has also produced a collaborative map of the players in scientific and cultural outreach in French Polynesia. We have added the association to it: TAHITI FADWATCH is now listed there. The map can be viewed online (in French): https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/fr/map/acteurs-de-la-mediation-scientifique-et-culturelle_1291633

For us, this connection meets a need. The drifting fish aggregating device (dFAD) is a technical subject: industrial fishing, satellite beacons, drift trajectories, stranding data, regulation. We deal with it in the field, but knowing it is not enough to make it understood. We need support to learn how to explain it in plain terms, to simplify without distorting, and to find the right words for each audience. That is the know-how Nārama cultivates and passes on.

In return, TAHITI FADWATCH brings the network a subject rooted in the field, one that links science to what island residents experience. French Polynesia's Marine Resources Directorate (Direction des ressources marines, DRM) has been monitoring dFAD strandings since 2019, and the Pacific Community (SPC) maintains the regional stranding database. In February 2026, during the survey mission led by the DRM at Makemo and Marutea Nord, in the Tuamotu archipelago, we saw how much the observations of residents, who identify dFADs and reuse their components, complement scientific knowledge.

Our goal: to take part in the Village des sciences of the Fête de la science in 2027, with a way of telling the story of dFADs that speaks to everyone. If you would like to help us make the subject accessible, do get in touch: contact@tahitifadwatch.org.