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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.