A checklist of coastal fishes includes 433 species from Lord Howe
Island, 254 from Norfolk Island, and 145 from the Kermadec Islands. Tropical
and subtropical species dominate all three faunas, but the proportion of tropical
species decreases, and the proportion of subtropical species increases, from west
to east. Subtropical species are the most abundant individual fishes at all three
islands. Only 4.6% of the combined fauna is endemic, with individual island
endemism even lower (1.2-2.1 %). The fish faunas of the three islands appear to
have originated mainly by larval dispersal from Australia and the Coral Sea.
Evidence for present-day dispersal is discussed. Faunal relationships among
the subtropical islands of the western, central, and eastern South Pacific are
examined. In the South Pacific as a whole, there is a high positive correlation
between coastal fish diversity and hermatypic coral diversity
