The Arafura Sea is bordered by theGulf of Carpentaria and the continent ofAustralia to the south, theTimor Sea to the west, theBanda andSeram seas to the northwest, and theTorres Strait to the east. (Just across the strait, farther to the east, lies theCoral Sea). The Arafura Sea is 1,290 kilometres (800 mi) long and 560 kilometres (350 mi) wide. The depth of the sea is 50–80 m (160–260 ft) in most places, with the depth increasing to the west.
The sea lies over the Arafura Shelf, which is a section of theSahul Shelf. Whensea levels were low during the lastglacial maximum, the Arafura Shelf, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Torres Strait formed a large, flat,land bridge that connected Australia and New Guinea and eased the migration of humans fromAsia into Australia. The combined landmass formed the continent ofSahul.
European use of the name "Arafura Sea" dates back to at least 1663, whenJoan Blaeu recorded in the text on his wall map of the East Indies ("Archipelagus Orientalis, sive Asiaticus") that the inland inhabitants of theMoluccas call themselves "Alfores".[3]
The name also appeared inGeorge Windsor Earl's 1837Sailing Directions for the Arafura Sea, which he compiled from the narratives of Lieutenants Kolff and Modera of theRoyal Netherlands Navy.[4]
Although it has been suggested that Arafura derives from thePortuguese word "Alfours", meaning "free men", it seems more likely that sea is named after the Harrafora, the indigenous name for "the people of mountains" in the Moluccas (part of Indonesia), which was the explanation recorded by Lieutenants Kolff and Modera in the 1830s.[4]
Thomas Forrest sailed through the Moluccas (Maluku Islands) in 1775, and documented that there were people who called themselves the "Harafora" living in the western end ofNew Guinea, in subordination to the "Papuas". He also reported their presence in Magindano (Mindanao).[5] The geographerConrad Malte-Brun repeated Forrest's reports of a race of "Haraforas" in 1804,[6] and addedBorneo to the list of places this group inhabited.[7] The ethnologist James C. Prichard described the Haraforas as head-hunters.[8] John Coulter, in his account of a sojourn in the interior of south-west New Guinea in 1835,[9] referred to the tribespeople there as the "Horrafora", and had the impression that Papuans and Horraforans were two distinct groups in New Guinea.
AJ van der Aa's 1939 Toponymic Dictionary, recently rediscovered in theDutch National Archives, has this explanation for the name of the sea: "The inhabitants of theMoluccas called themselves 'haraforas', which translates to 'anak-anak gunung', meaning 'children of the mountains'."
The Arafura Sea is a rich fishery resource, particularly for shrimp anddemersal fish. Economically important species includeBarramundi,grouper,Penaeid shrimp, andNemipteridae fishes, among others.
At a time when many marine ecosystems and fish stocks around the world are diminished or collapsing, the Arafura Sea stands out as among the richest marine fisheries on Earth.[10] However, the natural resources of the Arafura have been under increased pressure fromillegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.
The Arafura and Timor Seas Expert Forum (ATSEF) was established in 2002 to promote the economically and environmentally sustainable management of those seas.[11][12]
^Captain Thomas Forrest,A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas, from Balambangan: &c. (Dublin, 1779).
^Edme Mentelle & Malte Brun,Géographie mathématique, physique et politique de toutes les parties du monde, &c., vol. XII (Paris, Henry Tardieu & Laporte, 1804), pages 400, 597.
^M. Malte-Brun,Universal Geography, or a Description of All the Parts of the World on a New Plan, &c., vol. III (Edinburgh, Adam Black, 1822).
^James Clowes Prichard,Researches into the Physical History of Man (London, J. & A. Arch, 1813), page 307.
^John Coulter, M.D.,Adventures on the Western Coast of South America and the Interior of California: including a narrative of incidents at the Kingsmill Islands, New Ireland, New Britain, New Guinea, and other islands in the Pacific Ocean; &c., vol. II (London, Longmans, 1847), chapters 11—16.
