Uratua holds six-month-old Kiana as they play inside a freshwater stream in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, August 3, 2024. The Polynesian Triangle encompasses some 10 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, with its people, who trace their lineage back to a spiritual homeland, closely connected by language, culture and their intimate knowledge of the moana, the ocean. "There are people and communities across Polynesia that are defending their reefs. Whether they get hit by the Olympic people, or over-fishing, or nuclear testing, there are people that are going to stand up in these communities. For us in Polynesia, that's who we are, that's our roots," says Cliff Kapono, a Hawaiian coral scientist, surfer and Polynesian activist. "This is now the war we fight. We fight for our environment." REUTERS/Carlos Barria
