The Abrolhos Islands Long Island Dive Trail

About the Abrolhos Islands

The Abrolhos Islands and their surrounding coral reef communities form one of Western Australia's unique marine areas.

The Abrolhos lie about 60 km west of Geraldton, and consist of 122 islands clustered into three main groups: the Wallabi Group, Easter Group and Pelsaert Group, which extend from north to south across 100km of ocean.

Lying in the stream of WA's warm, southward-flowing Leeuwin Current, the marine environment surrounding the Abrolhos is a meeting place for tropical and temperate sealife.

The Leeuwin Current starts to flow in April each year, and runs through the winter months until October, bringing masses of warm, low nutrient, tropical water down Western Australia's continental shelf from Indonesia. The Leeuwin Current carries with it a cargo of larvae, eggs and juveniles of many species of corals and other marine life taken far south oftheir normal range.

The Leeuwin Current maintains water temperatures throughout the winter at around 20 - 22^oC, enabling corals and tropical species of fish and invertebrates to thrive in latitudes where they wouldn't normally survive.

Large breeding colonies of seabirds exist on many of the Abrolhos Islands, and depend for their food on schools of pelagic baitfish. More than 90 species of seabird have been identified. Smaller seabirds, in turn, provide food for white breasted sea eagles which also occurin unusually large numbers throughout the Abrolhos Islands.

The Abrolhos also form an important part of Western Australia's most valuable commercial fishery - for western rock lobster. During the open fishing season from 15 March to 30 June each year, around 150 fishermen licensed to fish the Abrolhos waters, their families and deckhands, take up residence on the 22 islands designated for fishers' camps.

In the 14 weeks the Abrolhos are open for commercial rock lobster fishing, they produce an average of around 1.5 million kilos of lobster, worth over $40m and comprising about 15 per cent of the total catch from the fishery.

The Abrolhos are also famous for their historic shipwrecks, the best known of which are the Dutch East India Company vessels Batavia (1629), on Morning Reef near Beacon Island in the Wallabi Group, and the Zeewijk (1727), on Half-Moon Reef in the Pelsaert Group. Eighteen other historic wrecks, mostly from the 19th Century, have also been discovered in Abrolhos waters.

Every year the rich fish life, unique coral reef formations, birdlife, shipwrecks and the wild beauty of the Abrolhos are attracting an increasing number of visitors from the mainland.

Many come as part of a diving or fishing charter, while others come to observe the wildlife, explore the history or simply experience the Islands' unique environment.

The Abrolhos Islands' environments - both marine and terrestrial - are very fragile, and need the protection of residents and visitors alike.

The Abrolhos are part of the aquatic heritage of all West Australians. It is our task to ensure that we hand the Abrolhos, their marine habitats and wildlife onto future generations in an undamaged and productive state.

The Department of Fisheries hopes you enjoy your time on the Abrolhos -and leave no trace of your visit. For further details, see The Abrolhos Islands Visitor's Guide.