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AUSTRALIA
Christmas Island
Text by LINDA CASH
Images by MICHAEL AW
Christmas Island is often cited as Australia’s
Galápagos. It occupies an isolated spot in the Indian
Ocean that is actually much closer to Jakarta than
to Perth. What makes Christmas Island unique is
that it sits on top of an extinct steep-sided volcano
which rises from the sea floor 6,000 metres below.
This exceptional confluence of Nature means
that many deep, ocean-going marine animals like
dolphins, manta rays, whale sharks and tiger sharks
often come in very close to the reef.
So when diving around Christmas Island
you might be admiring a host of powder blue
surgeonfish nibbling the
algae on the coral reefs, only
38 A wall festooned
with healthy fan corals
to turn towards the deep
in exceptional visibility
blue and see an ocean-going
39 Millions of adult red
manta ray or whale shark
crabs migrate to the
coast to breed annually
cruising by.
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