List of corals of the Houtman Abrolhos
The marine waters of the Houtman Abrolhos, an island chain off the coast of Western Australia, have been recorded as containing 194 species of coral in 50 genera. This is a surprisingly high coral diversity, considering the high latitude of the reef, and the relatively low diversity of other biota. This is a list of corals of the Houtman Abrolhos:
Houtman Abrolhos
Why Houtman named the islands using a Portuguese word remains a subject of debate. John Forsyth states that the islands are named after the Abrolhos Archipelago off the east coast of Brazil, which was discovered and named by Portuguese navigators early in the 16th century. This position is supported by the fact that Houtman was familiar with the Abrolhos Archipelago, having sailed through it in 1598. Others assert that "abrolhos" was a Portuguese lookout's cry which, like many other Portuguese maritime terms, was taken up by sailors of other nationalities, becoming by Houtman's time a Dutch loan word for offshore reefs. Additionally, Frederick De Houtman had at least some grasp of Portuguese, having been sent by Amsterdam merchants to Lisbon from 1592 - 1594 with his brother Cornelis to learn about the Portuguese route to the Indies. Frederick also appears to have been a keen linguist, having published the first-known Dutch-Malay and Dutch-Malagasy dictionaries in 1603. He appears to have been fluent-enough in Portuguese that he might have used an evocative Portuguese word if it described the area better than any Dutch word did.