Atafu, formerly known as the Duke of York Group, is a group of 52 coral

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

s within

Tokelau Tokelau (; ; known previously as the Union Islands, and, until 1976, known officially as the Tokelau Islands) is a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean. It consists of three tropical coral atolls: Atafu, Nukunonu, a ...

in the south

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, north of

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

. With a land area of , it is the smallest of the three islands that constitute Tokelau. It is an

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

and surrounds a central lagoon, which covers some . The atoll lies some south of the equator at 8° 35' South, 172° 30' West.

Population

According to the 2016 census, 541 people officially live on Atafu (although only 413 were present the night the census was taken). Of those present, 78% belong to the

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

.2016 Final data tables
Retrieved 13-07-2017 The main settlement on the atoll is located on Atafu Island in its northwestern corner. The

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

church was established on the island in 1858, but today almost all of the residents belong to the Congregational Christian Church. The first village on Atafu was established at its southern end: Residents built houses along the lagoon shore to take best advantage of the cooling

trade wind The trade winds or easterlies are the permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisph ...

s. Fishing is traditionally done by the men on Atafu, and they are highly skilled at it. They use many traditional methods that are passed on from fathers to sons. They create very effective lures, fish traps, nets, and seines. They commonly use the technique called "noose fishing", in which a circle of rope, tied with a noose knot, is dangled in the water; a large fish swims into the rope circle, lured by bait, and the noose is then tightened around its body, holding it fast. They also make well-crafted canoes, which they use for their fishing expeditions.

Geography

Atafu lies in the Pacific hurricane belt. In January 1914, a massive storm demolished the church and most of the houses on the islands, and wiped out many of the coconut palms.Atafu Island
on janeresture.com The atoll is roughly triangular in shape and encloses a lagoon some north to south by east to west at its widest point. It is low-lying, reaching a maximum altitude of only some , and is heavily vegetated with

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...

palms and other trees, with undergrowth similar to that found on many small central Pacific islands. Lizards, rats, and seabirds are common on Atafu island. The atoll attracts a wide variety of fish in large numbers. The eastern side of the lagoon is a nearly continuous thin strip of land with one small break halfway along its length. In contrast, the western side is composed of reef and several distinct islands, notably the inverted V shape of Atafu Island in the north, Alofi, which extends into the lagoon from the western reef, and the L-shaped Fenualoa in the southwest. The smaller Tamaseko Island lies in the lagoon close to Alofi. The reef which connects the islands of the atoll is shallow enough that it is possible to walk between the islands at low tide. This also means that there is no boat passage to the lagoon, although the ocean becomes deep very close to the reef. This allows for good anchorage, but also makes for rough seas close to the reef. The flatness of the atoll and its location within the

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

belt has led to damage to island properties on occasion.

Important Bird Area

Some 70 ha of the southern and south-western parts of the atoll have been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because the site supports breeding colonies of

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

and black noddiess and

common white tern The white tern or common white tern (''Gygis alba'') is a small seabird found across the tropical oceans of the world. It is sometimes known as the fairy tern, although this name is potentially confusing as it is also the common name of '' Sternu ...

s, with about 30,000 breeding pairs estimated in 2011.

Islets

# Fogalaki i Lalo # Fogalaki-Matangi (Fogalaki i Matagi) # Te Oki # Te Hepu # Laualalava # Te Kapi # Na Utua # Motu Atea # Motu Fakalalo # Tama Hakea # Hakea Lahi ki Matagi # Hakea O Himi # Malatea # Kenakena # Malo o Futa # Motu o Te Lakia # Komulo # Hakea o Apelamo # Na Hapiti # Niuefa # Fenualoa # Te Puka # Tamaheko # Te Alofi # Tulua a Kovi # Tagi a Kuli # Hakea o Himi # Tulua a Kava # Motu o te Niu # Malatea # Hakea o Hoi # Hakea o Fata # Kenakena # Matu o Tenumi # Matu o te Lakia # Motu Fakaka kai # Malo o Futa # Malo o Futa # Motu o te Fala # Tafega # Komulo # Hakela Lahi i Lalo # Hotoma # Hakea o Apelamo # Na Hapiti # Niuefa # Fenualoa # Te Puka # Tamaheko # Te Alofi # Ulugagie # Atafu Village

History

It is likely that

Polynesians Polynesians form an ethnolinguistic group of closely related people who are native to Polynesia (islands in the Polynesian Triangle), an expansive region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sou ...

visited the island in ancient times, but they may not have settled there. The European discovery of the atoll came on 21 June 1765; it was made by

John Byron Vice-Admiral John Byron (8 November 1723 – 1 April 1786) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer. He earned the nickname "Foul-Weather Jack" in the press because of his frequent encounters with bad weather at sea. As a midshipman, he sa ...

, of . Byron found no one living on the island at that time. He named the island "Duke of York's island". Atafu was established by a couple, a husband, named Tonuia, and his wife, named Lagimaina, along with their seven children. Between 1856 and 1979, the United States claimed sovereignty over the island and the other Tokelauan atolls. In 1979, the U.S. conceded that Tokelau was now under New Zealand sovereignty, and a

maritime boundary A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of the Earth's water surface areas using physiographic or geopolitical criteria. As such, it usually bounds areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources,VLIZ Maritime Bound ...

between Tokelau and

American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...

was established by the

Treaty of Tokehega The Treaty of Tokehega (), officially titled the Treaty between the United States of America and New Zealand on the Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Tokelau and the United States of America, is a 1980 treaty between New Zealand and ...

. On 26 August 2007, Ralph Tuijn, who was attempting to row a boat all the way from South America to Australia, crashlanded on Atafu. On 26 November 2010, three teenage boys from Atafu were rescued after having drifted for 50 days in the Pacific.

References

External links

History and map
{{Coord, 8, 33, 26, S, 172, 28, 15, W, region:TK_type:isle, display=title Atolls of Tokelau Pacific islands claimed under the Guano Islands Act Territorial disputes of New Zealand Former disputed islands Important Bird Areas of the Tokelau Islands Seabird colonies Important Bird Areas of the Realm of New Zealand