Fakarava, Havaiki-te-araro, Havai'i or Farea[2] is an atoll in the west of the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia.

[3][4] The atoll was first mentioned by a European on 17 July 1820 by the Russian navigator Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen,[5] who gave it the name Wittgenstein Island.

[6] It was visited by the British sailor Ireland on 2 October 1831, who mentioned it under the same name, and then on 14 November 1835 by his compatriot Robert FitzRoy, as well as by the French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville in September 1838.

[5] In the 19th century, Fakarava became a French territory with a population of about 375 inhabitants, which developed a small production of coconut oil (about 7 to 8 barrels per year around 1860), but became, due to its geographical position and the seaport offered by its lagoon, one of the main centers of trade in this resource and of mother-of-pearl production.

It is accessible through two passes: Geologically, the atoll is the coral outgrowth (150 m) from the top of a very small volcanic seamount of the same name, measuring 1,170 m from the seafloor, formed some 53.7–59.6 million years ago.

The church, as its name indicates, is dedicated to a Spanish mystic saint[14] who founded the Order of the Discalced Carmelites (Ordo Fratrum Discalceatorum Beatissimae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo).

[16] The landing of the Natitua submarine cable and its commissioning in December 2018 allows Fakareva to be connected to Tahiti and to global high-speed Internet.

[18] Gombessa 2, conducted in Fakarava in 2014, on the reproduction of marbled groupers of the species Epinephelus polyphekadion, in particular their gathering and behavior before and especially during the annual spawning of females at the exit of the Tumakohua pass (the one in the south of the lagoon) during the two full moons of June and July.

[19] Gombessa 4, conducted in 2017, is a continuation of the previous one, and focuses on the unusual density of gray reef sharks (more than 700), in the same Tumakohua pass during the same period.