Pulu Keeling National Park Management Plan
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Corals
Reef-building corals of the southern atoll have received considerable attention, partly because the southern atoll was the only one ever visited by Darwin (in 1836), and partly because of the intrinsic interest in the atoll’s geographic isolation. It is located approximately 1000 kilometres and 1,830 kilometres from the reefs of Java and Western Australia respectively, with Christmas Island being the only ‘stepping stone’ for westerly movement of propagules (Berry 1989). Many common and widespread Indo-Pacific taxa have not been recorded from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and are almost certainly absent. Ninety-nine species of reef corals are recorded from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Veron 1990). Of these, all but twelve are known from Western Australia. Nine species are not recorded elsewhere in the eastern Indian Ocean and two (one being taxonomically doubtful) may be endemic (Veron 1990).