Bailey Field Station
On Motu Onetahi, the station is the base for your fieldwork on Tetiaroa.
- LEED Platinum buildings
- Laboratories and accommodation on site
Our Stations
Field Station 01 / Motu Onetahi
Bailey Field Station
Our eco-friendly lab surrounded by the nature it studies.
- Location
- Motu Onetahi
- Built to
- LEED Platinum
- Sleeps
- 18
- Dry lab
- 40 m²
- From Tahiti
- 53 km
Researchers from all over the world come here.
Marine biologists, ornithologists, entomologists, archaeologists and climate scientists apply for time at the Bailey Field Station every year, from institutions across the globe. Some stay a fortnight. Some come back season after season.
While they're here, researchers live inside the Onetahi community — eating at the staff cantina, riding the same bike paths, running the wet lab at odd hours. The reef, the forest, the brackish lakes and the marae are all minutes from the bench.
Projects can be scientific, cultural or educational. Applications are handled through RAMS, the system we share with the University of California Natural Reserve System, and the full process is set out further down this page.
The work
What gets studied here.
The station is a base, not a program. The projects running through it belong to visiting scientists, Tetiaroa Society staff, and students — but they cluster around the questions this atoll is unusually good at answering.
Reef and lagoon
Coral condition, restoration trials, water chemistry, and the lagoon's response to heat. The reef starts a few metres past the beach, so a monitoring dive takes a morning.
Turtles and sharks
Green turtle nesting is monitored with Te Mana o te Moana, and the station's seawater tables and aquaria take the animals that need care. The nesting motus and the lagoon nursery are both reachable by the Society's boat.
Native forest and seabirds
The Tetiaroa Atoll Restoration Project — rat and yellow crazy ant eradication, seabird colony monitoring with Te Manu, and holding back whatever arrives with the next hull. Most motus are now rat-free; the remaining few are still being worked.
Mosquito elimination
The AeLIMIN+ programme, led by Institut Louis Malardé with Tetiaroa Society alongside, suppressing Aedes mosquitoes on Onetahi through sterile male releases. It needs a lab, rearing space, and somewhere to stage a release week after week.
Archaeology and culture
Tetiaroa's marae and settlement sites are under strict protection and under continuing study. Cultural research is treated as research here, not as background.
Atoll systems
Brackish lakes, groundwater, soils, and a direct deep ocean water line — the physical plumbing of an atoll, available for sampling on site.
Field courses
University classes use the dry lab's teaching space and the atoll as their subject. Students arrive as students and leave having run something of their own.
Long-term monitoring
The same transects, the same nests, and the same water, measured year after year. Slow change only shows up in a long record.
The building
Somewhere to work, sleep, and eat.
Everything below is on site and shared. Diving equipment and boat time need to be booked before you arrive.
Buildings and walkways
From your room to the lab, the station buildings are linked by covered walkways.
Bedrooms
A comfortable place to come back to after a day in the field.
- Five air-conditioned bedrooms
- Sleeping space for up to 18 scientists and staff
Lounge and shared spaces
A place to sit down between trips to the lab or out into the field.
- Common area with a kitchenette
- Office and workspace
- Wifi throughout
Wet lab
An outdoor lab with three water supplies: fresh water, surface seawater, and water from the deep ocean.
- Fresh water, surface seawater, and deep ocean water lines
- Outdoor aquarium and 300-litre tanks
- Seawater tables
Dry lab
Forty square metres of air-conditioned space for lab work and teaching.
- Teaching space
- Bench and work space
- General laboratory equipment
- Freezers
- Drying oven
- Dissecting scopes
- Refrigerator
Carts
For the gear that won’t fit on a bicycle.
- Carts for hauling gear
Bicycles
On this small motu, a bicycle is part of everyday life.
- Bicycles available to all station users
- Well-paved bike paths across the islet
Boats
Shared with other researchers and with Tetiaroa Society’s field programs.
- Tetiaroa Society boat, normally driven by a Society driver
- Direct access to reef, lagoon, and open ocean
- Book boat time before you arrive
- Diving equipment, pre-booking required
Kayaks
Explore the water under your own paddle power.
- Kayaks available at the station
Meals
Provided at The Brando staff cantina, a short walk or pedal from the housing.
- Three meals a day, included in the daily rate
- Eaten alongside the island’s staff community
You're working on a royal retreat.
Thirteen motus in a ring, 53 kilometres north of Tahiti, reachable by boat, plane or helicopter. Long before anyone thought to put a laboratory here, Tetiaroa was the private retreat of Tahitian royalty — and it still holds a particular place in the hearts of Tahitian people.
Its marae sit among the palms a short walk from the lab: sacred sites, protected by the government of French Polynesia, and still very much alive in the stories told about them. You'll be working beside colleagues who grew up with those stories.
You'll share the island with Tetiaroa Society staff, which mostly means meals at the cantina, the same bike paths, and the same lagoon at the end of a working day.
Thirteen motus, thirteen names
Onetahi, Tiaraunu, Tauvini, Ahuroa… every islet in the ring has a name, and most have a story attached. Ask the people you're working beside — they grew up with them.
Visiting researchers
Apply and reserve your dates.
Any researcher starting a scientific project — or bringing a university class — works through the steps below. Applications are managed in RAMS, the system Tetiaroa Society shares with the University of California Natural Reserve System.
Plan on a long runway
Start early. The full process takes three to six months, and permits must be filed at least a month before you arrive.
- Step 01Talk to the station managerBefore anything else, tell us what you want to do. The station manager will tell you which permits and authorisations your project actually needs, and whether the dates you have in mind are realistic.
Use the form at the bottom of this page.
- Step 02Submit an application in RAMSCreate a profile, select Tetiaroa Society Bailey Field Station as your reserve, and complete the application with your project details, your team, the reserve-specific questions, and your funding.
Projects may be scientific, cultural, or educational, and must fit the mission of Tetiaroa Society. To be considered, a project needs the sponsorship of at least one member of the Scientific Advisory Board and must be fully funded — nothing is approved in anticipation of future funding.
Open the RAMS portal - Step 03Reserve your spotReturn to your submitted application in RAMS to make the reservation: statement of purpose, arrival and departure dates, participants, accommodation, transport, and the resources you need on which days.
You will review and agree to the station's waivers and policies as part of the reservation.
- Step 04Obtain your permitsTetiaroa Society streamlines the permitting, but the deadlines are real: applications must be in at least one month before you arrive.
Non-EU citizens conducting research in French Polynesia need a convention d'accueil. Any work on genetic resources — DNA, RNA, or metabolic products of animal, plant, or microbial origin, commercial or not — needs a Commitment Act for a Prior Informed Consent Request from the Department of Environment.
- Step 05Send your completed formsDownload the required forms, fill them in, and return them — the protocole d'accueil, the attestation sur l'honneur, and anything else your permits require.
PDF only, one file at a time, 2 MB limit per file.
- Step 06ArriveYou will sign the Code of Conduct and the atoll's internal regulations on arrival, get your orientation, and start work.
Rates and fees
Daily rates cover meals, lodging, lab use, and wifi. They also include shared use of the Tetiaroa Society boat, which for most users must be driven by a Society driver.
- International researchersRegistration through Gump Station required.
- $165per day
- French Polynesia-based researchers
- $132per day
- Students in international field courses
- $132per day
- Students in local field courses (UC Berkeley)
- $110per day
- Boat transfer, Tahiti–Tetiaroa–Tahiti
- $128round trip
- Boat use is shared with other researchers and depends on the availability of a Tetiaroa Society driver. If you need dedicated or extended boat time, or want to drive it yourself, arrange it well before your visit.
- Chemicals can be provided on request ahead of your arrival; large quantities may carry an additional fee.
- Domestic flights to the atoll are available at additional cost, subject to availability.
One thing we ask in return
Tetiaroa Society is funded by people who are genuinely excited about what gets discovered here. So we ask you to work with our team before, during, and after your study, and to send a report when it's finished. What we share publicly includes:
- Project descriptions
- Information about the research team
- Information about the research subject
- Photographs from the field
- Study reports
- Published papers and results
There are also guests on the island who would like to hear about your work. Researchers may be asked to give one short presentation during their stay.
Start your application
This reaches the station manager, who will tell you which permits your project needs and whether your dates work. It is the first step, not the whole application — the formal one is filed in RAMS.
Expect a reply within a few working days. The atoll is on Tahiti time (UTC−10).