Tikehau (meaning Peaceful Landing in Tuamotuan[2]) or Porutu-kai is a coral atoll in the Palliser Islands group, part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia.

On a visit in 1987, Jacques Cousteau's research group made a study of Tikehau's lagoon and discovered that it contains a greater variety of fish species than any other place in French Polynesia.

[3] Tikehau, along with Niau and especially Makatea, is an elevated atoll (the highest point is 10 meters above sea level) resulting from a fossa, i.e., a coral reef that was exposed and "dolomitized" when it was pulled out of the water during a lithosphere bulge between 1 and 2 million years ago.

[4] During his numerous expeditions, Jacques Cousteau defined the sea surrounding this island as one of the richest in fish in the world.

The atoll is also home to numerous bird colonies, such as the Tahitian long-billed reed warbler (Acrocephalus caffer), the Tuamotu thyllopope (Ptilinopus coralensis) and the rare parrot Vini peruviana.

[5] However, the atoll's economy is mainly based on tourism, developed around the "Tikehau Pearl Beach" resort, whose activity increased with the construction of a 1,200-meter-long airfield in 1977. and 40,000 passengers a year, a third of which are in transit, making it one of the busiest in the Tuamotus.