What is the Great Barrier Reef?
The Great Barrier Reef is: • at over 2000 km long it’s the world’s largest living structure• made of tiny marine animal skeletons piling on top of their ancestors • a collection of some 3000 individual reefs housing thousands of species of fish and molluscs, hundreds of reef-building hard corals, uncounted soft corals and six of the world’s seven species of sea turtles • an extremely fragile ecosystem, protected by World Heritage listing and National Park status, monitored and controlled by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). Many reefs can be accessed by recreational divers and snorkellers – and that is where the Whitsundays comes into its own as an underwater mecca. Day and extended cruises variously cater for learner and qualified divers as well as snorkellers and can include both fringing reef and outer reef. SCUBA courses are available. If time is short and if you are medically fit, try an ‘Introductory Dive’. Bareboat charterers can go to even more islands on a
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system, extending 2,600 km (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square km (133,000 sq mi). Composed of almost 3,000 individual reefs, the Great Barrier Reef is sometimes called the world’s largest organism, though it is more accurately the world’s largest structure built by organisms. The reef consists of 900 islands, created when sand gathers on the top of coral just beneath the surface. The Great Barrier Reef is just off the northeast coast of Australia, and can be seen easily from the air. Much of it is protected as part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and it has been named a state icon of Queensland, the adjacent Australian state. The Great Barrier Reef has been created over thousands of years by coral polyps, stationary sea-anemone-like organisms that leave behind a hard calcium carbonate skeleton when they die. New polyps build on the old, creating an endless cycle of expansion. Reproducing by budding, la
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world. In fact, it is the largest natural feature on earth and can be seen from space. It is home to thousands of marine animals and a truly beautiful place. Located off the North Queensland Coast of Australia it is a playground for whales, dlophins and tourists alike. The Great Barrier Reef is a system of coral reefs that supports the planet’s most complex ecosystem. (An ecosystem is the term used to describe a ‘society’ of plants and animals that are dependant on and interact with one another for survival). Over time, the coral reefs grow and join together making larger reefs that get to support more and more life. The Great Barrier Reef is made up of a few thousand separate coral reefs, cays, islands and lagoons making it by far the largest reef system in the world.
