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 Great Barrier Reef
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It is the world's largest coral reef. The reef is located in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia. It stretches over 2000 kilometres in length and can be seen from space. An ancient barrier reef similar to the Great Barrier Reef can be found in The Kimberlies.
The Great Barrier Reef first became known to Europeans when the explorer Captain James Cook ran aground it on June 11, 1770. The Great Barrier Reef however was known to Indigenous Australians whose occupation of the Australian continent extends back 40,000 to 60,000 years or more. The oldest parts of the reef date from about 60,000 years ago.
The Great Barrier Reef is a large system of about 900 islands and over 3000 coral reefs, which mostly lie some distance from the mainland coastline. Due to its vast biodiversity, warm clear waters and its accessibility from the floating guest facilities called 'live aboards', the Reef is a very popular destination for tourists, especially scuba divers. Many cities along the Queensland coast offer boat trips to the reef on a daily basis. Several continental islands have been turned into resorts.
The Great Barrier Reef is sometimes referred to as the single largest organism in the world. In reality it is made up of many millions of tiny organisms, as are all coral formations.
A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Crown-of-Thorns starfish are natural predators of corals. They have a life cycle with many eggs released annually, that enables this species to boom-and-bust like locusts in a desert. The cycles are thought to be enhanced by declines in water quality such as excess nutrients from farm runoff. Since scientists and other users of the reef have been able to observe crown-of-thorns outbreaks, about 1/3 of the entire system has been affected since the 1960s. The link to an animation of Crown-of-Thorns starfish outbreaks illustrates, using data collected from the Australian Institute of Marine Science Long Term Monitoring Program, the occurrence of Crown-of-Thorns starfish outbreaks.
Managing the Great Barrier Reef
There are approximately two million visitors to the Great Barrier Reef each year. Although most of these visits are highly regulated, there are some very popular areas near shore (such as Green Island) that have suffered damage from tourist activity.
See:
• Australia
• Scuba
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It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Great Barrier Reef".
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