Checklist of the coastal fishes of Lord Howe, Norfolk and Kermadec Islands, southwest Pacific Ocean

The subtropical islands of the north Tasman Sea have a fascinating mix of tropical, subtropical and temperate marine fishes. Species diversity and the proportion of tropical species in the fauna decline from west to east (Lord Howe > Norfolk > Kermadec Islands) (Francis 1993, Francis & Duffy 2015). This checklist has been compiled as a resource for those wishing to understand and interact with the fish faunas of these islands, monitor biodiversity and coastal fish biogeography, and to assess changes in the faunas as a result of global climate change.

Coastal fishes are defined here as those species that occur within 50 m of the surface and 1 km of the shore, excluding oceanic pelagic species. Most species included in the checklist are reef fishes, but species living on or in sand, and in open water near the coast, are also included. Inclusion or exclusion of species is inevitably sometimes arbitrary, especially where information on the normal depth ranges of species is poor.

This checklist is updated and revised from earlier checklists of fishes from Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands (Francis 1993) and Kermadec Islands (Francis & Duffy 2015). Some species reported in those earlier lists have been omitted, mostly as a result of improved information on their depth ranges. Additions to the previous checklists and changed or verified specific names are noted, and the sources for these are documented. Generic and specific names follow those in Eschmeyer's 'Catalog of Fishes' (Fricke et al. 2019) unless a recent taxonomic revision has changed them. Species that range westward to mainland Australia and south-eastward to mainland New Zealand are shown in adjacent columns.