LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Christmas Island: Indian Ocean
built 657 days ago
Christmas Island is internationally famous for the spectacular annual migration of sixty million red land crabs, from the forest to the ocean to mate and spawn. These red crabs are currently facing an insidious biological invasion of the very worst kind. Super-colonies of yellow crazy ants, originating from Africa, are multiplying at an enormous rate, already wiping out an estimated fifteen million red crabs.
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Chartering the three masted topsail scow ZIGARA in Auckland, they began to set up the vessel ready for her expedition into the Pacific Ocean to Christmas Island. The scow was fitted with auxiliary power in the form of two small steam engines which drove her twin screws. These were too small and weak in horsepower to be of much use to the lumbering scow... they were good in calm water and light winds. She was probably the best vessel for the type of salvage work that they had in mind and had the full cargo of timber been aboard the AEON on Christmas Island, when they reached her, she could easily have loaded it in 200,000 super feet consignments.
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Kiritimati, as Christmas Island is spelled by the locals ("ti" is pronounced "s" in Kiribati), is the largest Atoll in the Pacific at 222 square miles. The island is part of the Republic of Kiribati (kir-i-bas) which consists of 33 islands scattered across 2,400 miles of the Pacific Ocean near the equator. Kiritimati is part of the Line Islands, which combined with the Phoenix and Gilbert groups of islands and Banaba make up the Republic of Kiribati.
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Australia's Immigration Detention Centre on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean has been reopened to detain a group of seven Indonesian asylum seekers. The Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) said four men, one woman and two infants from West Timor were taken from Darwin to the remote detention facility, 2,600km north-west of Perth on November 17.
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The land crabs and sea birds are the most noticeable animals on the island. Twenty terrestrial and intertidal crabs (of which thirteen are regarded as true land crabs, only dependent on the ocean for larval development) have been described. Robber crabs, known elsewhere as coconut crabs... exist in large numbers on the island.
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Passengers will be able to travel between the two oceans aboard sister ships Coral Princess and Island Princess, offering full Canal transit voyages and convenient roundtrip partial transits. Purpose-built for the Canal, these ships will together offer nearly 40 departures, carrying more passengers to the Panama Canal than any other cruise line. Each ship ... offers vacationers more opportunities to enjoy a balcony stateroom than any other vessel in the destination - the perfect vantage point for passengers to take a close-up look at the workings of the Canal's fascinating locks, which raise and lower the vessel a total of 170 feet.
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