Coral Sea Islands

Coral Sea Islands

The Coral Sea Islands are a group of small, tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, northeast of Australia. They are located on a sea area of about one million square kilometers, have a total coastline of 3,000 kilometers with a land area of 3 km ². In none of the islands there is a port, there is only off the Pacific coast anchorages. The largest island is Willis Islet, is on her manned weather station Willis Iceland with a crew of 4 people. On the islands there are also important nesting sites for birds and turtles, but the natural resources of the islands are insignificant.

Policy

The island group is as a territory to Australia and is administered from Canberra of the Australian Department of the Environment, which monitors the activities of visitors. The territory was created in 1969 (before the islands were considered part of Queensland ) and in 1997 to the more southern reefs or atolls Middleton and Elizabeth Reef expands, which are often already calculated for Tasman. The defense is subject to Australia and the Royal Australian Navy controlled the islands at regular intervals. The abbreviation for the territory is CR.

Facilities

Australia operates automatic weather stations on many of the islands and reefs and claimed a 200 - nautical-mile zone.

Population

There is no permanent population on the islands, with the exception of the crew of the meteorological station Willis Iceland and no economic activities.