Atafu, Coral atoll in Tokelau, Pacific Ocean

Atafu is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean that forms part of Tokelau and consists of a triangular formation spanning eight kilometers. Fifty-two small coral islands form a ring that encloses a lagoon stretching five kilometers from north to south.

A British naval officer named John Byron recorded the atoll in 1765 and called it Duke of York Group when he found no inhabitants during his Pacific voyage. People later settled and made it their home, forming the community that lives there today.

Tokelauan oral tradition says Atafu was settled by Tonuia, his wife Lagimaina and their seven children. The first village stood at the southern end, where houses were built along the lagoon shore to catch the cooling trade winds. Men fish with lures, traps, nets and seines, and with noose fishing, a baited rope circle tightened around a large fish.

The main settlement sits in the northwestern part of the atoll, about two meters above sea level, and there is no runway for planes. Travelers usually reach the atoll by boat from other islands in the region.

Atafu's reef is shallow enough to walk between its islets at low tide, yet no boat passage leads into the lagoon; the ocean deepens just beyond the reef edge. In 2010 three teenage boys from the atoll were rescued after drifting 1,300 km across the Pacific for 50 days.