Assessment of the offshore marine natural values of Australia’s Indian Ocean Territories

Summary

Most of our knowledge of marine biodiversity of Australia’s Indian Ocean Territories (IOT) is restricted to coastal waters around Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands. However, we do know that the vast majority of the marine realm across the two territories is deep-sea, with seafloor consisting of seamounts and ridges, abyssal and hadal plains.

These deeper habitats around Christmas Island were explored by a 12-day 2021 expedition of the RV Investigator (IN2021_V04).

A subsequent expedition (IN2022_V08) surveyed seafloor habitats in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Territory in 2022. This bio-assessment draws upon knowledge of the IOT shallow water fauna, the IN2021_V04 and IN2022_V08 expeditions, other observations from infrequent scientific voyages to the area, and from better-surveyed deep-sea habitats elsewhere.