Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2025L00070:body:0:p8
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2025L00070
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 23856–26839

in deeper waters, including cods, midnight snapper (ikan tau song), oblique banded snapper (ikan krisi), paddletail snapper (ikan jenak), ruby snapper (salman merah), rosy snapper (salman karang), green jobfishes (salman biru) and red and black sepat (sepat merah and sepat hitam).

The island's coral reefs also support endemic and hybrid fishes, including the lemonpeel angelfish. Fifteen varieties of hybrid reef fish and 5 endemic reef fish have been recorded on Christmas Island's coral reefs, with the island ranked 7th in the world for the number of endemic coral reef fishes per area of habitat. High levels of endemism and hybridisation contribute to the island's significant marine biodiversity by creating new genetic combinations which may enhance the ecosystem's resilience to environmental changes.

Image: Mesophotic reef at Christmas Island (Tane Sinclair-Taylor)

Image: The Cocos angelfish is endemic to Australia's Indian Ocean Territories (Parks Australia)

Land crabs (ketam darat, 陆蟹)

The land crabs at Christmas Island have the highest level of diversity and abundance in the world, with 20 species of land crabs found on the island, including the iconic and terrestrial keystone species. Millions of Christmas Island red crabs (ketam merah) migrate to the coastline annually to spawn in the ocean. This mass spawning event contributes significant nutrients to the marine environment and is representative of the ecological linkage between the marine and terrestrial environments.Figure 2.3: Both marine and terrestrial environments are vital to the life cycle of Christmas Island red crabs (ketam merah)

Open ocean ecosystem and seafloor features

The open and deep-sea ocean ecosystem surrounding Christmas Island contains a range of habitat forming features, including seamounts and seamount chains, hard plains and hadal (deep trough areas), and areas of high productivity in the pelagic environment. The offshore waters of Christmas Island provide important foraging areas for the Abbott's booby and other seabirds and are part of the only known spawning grounds for southern blue fin tuna. Seven species of cetaceans have been recorded occurring within the marine environment around Christmas Island. The deep sea – especially the slopes of the numerous seamounts across the region – also supports diverse communities of corals, sponges and sea lilies.

Image: Christmas Island is one of a series of steep seamounts, some of them kilometres high, across the marine region of the Indian Ocean Territories (coloured areas are those mapped by the CSIRO Research Vessel Investigator in 2021)

Image: A squat lobster on bamboo coral (Museums Victoria) – these lobster are found at depths of around half a kilometre

Seabirds

Christmas Island is internationally significant for seabirds, with over 100 species of seabird recorded on the island. Christmas Island is the last remaining breeding colony in the world for the threatened and endemic Abbott's