"Arafura Sea" dates back to at least 1663, when Joan Blaeu recorded in the text on his wall map of the East Indies ("Archipelagus Orientalis, sive Asiaticus") that the inland inhabitants of the Moluccas call themselves "Alfores". The name also appeared in George Windsor Earl's 1837 Sailing Directions for the Arafura Sea, which he compiled from the narratives of Lieutenants Kolff and Modera of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Although it has been suggested that Arafura derives from the Portuguese 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. 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 of New Guinea, in subordination to the "Papuas". He also reported their presence in Magindano (Mindanao). The geographer Conrad Malte-Brun repeated Forrest's reports of a race of "Haraforas" in 1804, and added Borneo to the list of places this group inhabited. The ethnologist James C. Prichard described the Haraforas as head-hunters. John Coulter, in his account of a sojourn in the interior of south-west New Guinea in 1835, 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 the Dutch National Archives, has this explanation for the name of the sea: "The inhabitants of the Moluccas called themselves 'haraforas', translating 'Anak anak gunung' as 'children of the mountains'." Fisheries The Arafura Sea is a rich fishery resource, particularly for shrimp and demersal fish. Economically important species include Barramundi, grouper, Penaeid shrimp, and Nemipteridae 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. However, the natural resources of the Arafura have been under increased pressure from illegal, 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. See also Alfur people Aru Islands Asmat people Makassan contact with Australia References Coastline of the Northern Territory Seas of Indonesia