Mining and 'crazy' ants threaten red crabs

One of the world's great wildlife migrations is under threat from plans to expand phosphate mining on Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean.

The tropical island, which lies closer to Java than to Australia, is inhabited by 60 million bright red crabs.

Their annual migration from the rainforests of the interior to the coast to spawn is regarded by ecologists as one of the wonders of the natural world.

Conservationists say the species is already under grave threat from the yellow "crazy" ant, an introduced species which has killed an estimated 20 million crabs by squirting them with acid.

Now phosphate miners say their operations need to be expanded as current reserves are drying up.

Phil Jones, technical services manager for Christmas Island Phosphates, said phosphate mining provided the island's main source of income and was vital for its future.

He said many jobs would be lost among the island's 1500 inhabitants unless a new 2.5sq km bloc is opened up.

"There has to be a trade-off between a couple of hundred acres of forest and people's jobs and livelihoods," he said.

"If the mine closed down, the economy would be totally decimated. Hotels, restaurants and the port would suffer."

But biologist Peter Green, of La Trobe University, who has lived on the island for seven of the last 17 years, said the area earmarked for mining is pristine forest with a huge crab population.

"We've lost a third of the crab population to the crazy ants and we can't afford to lose any more," he said.

Green said the phosphate company was breaking promises it had made in the past not to clear any more forest.

He suggested Christmas Island could phase out phosphate mining and turn to eco-tourism instead.

Until now, however, tourists have been deterred by the high cost of airfares - a return ticket from Perth costs around A$1400 ($1490), double the price of flying to Bali.

Jones admitted the mining company "wouldn't have a leg to stand on" if there were enough tourism jobs.

"But quite simply, there are only four or five people on the island making a living from tourism," he said.

He dismissed conservationist claims that the planned mine expansion would kill 1.4 million crabs as "bunkum".

"Some crabs will get squashed. But none of the areas talked about have high densities of crabs."

A quarter of the island has already been cleared for mining and housing.

Just 23km long, the island was given its name by a captain from the Dutch East India Company, who arrived on Christmas Day 1643.

It was annexed by Britain in 1888 following the discovery of phosphate, used to make fertiliser. With no native population, the British moved large numbers of Malays and Chinese from Singapore and Malaya, whose descendants form the majority of the population today.