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Rowley Shoals, Timor Sea
This astronaut photograph highlights the trio of coral reef atolls known as Rowley Shoals, located in the southwestern Timor Sea. Three reef areas make up the shoals--extending approximately 100 kilometers from northeast to southwest, they are Mermaid Reef, Clerke Reef, and Imperieuse Reef. Only Clerke Reef and Imperieuse Reef have white sandy islets (or cays) that remain above water. Imperieuse Reef also has the only permanent man-made structure- a lighthouse located on Cunningham Islet, a cay at the northern end of the reef. Thin patchy cloud cover is visible at image lower right and at image top.
Rowley Shoals is located off the northwestern Australia coastline, approximately 300 km west of the city of Broome. Since the late 1970s, fishing and diving expeditions--based in Broome--have frequented the atolls of the Shoals. Clerke and Imperieuse Reefs are part of the Rowley Shoals Marine Park established in 1990. Mermaid Reef is also managed as the Mermaid Reef Marine National Nature Reserve (established in 1991).
The biodiversity of the atolls is impressive, with 233 coral species and 688 fish species more typical of Southeast Asia than other Western Australian reef ecosystems. Species include staghorn coral, giant clams, giant potato cod, maori wrasse, mackerel and tuna. In addition, Bedwell Island (a cay in Clerke Reef) hosts a colony of red-tailed tropicbirds as well as species of shearwaters, sea-eagles, terns, plovers, and egrets.
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