The Great Barrier Reef is a unique geographical feature – and one of the natural wonders of the world. The Great Barrier
Reef extends for about 1200 miles along the coast of Queensland, and covers an area of some eighty thousand miles. The largest coral reef in the entire world, it has been formed by the life and death of many generations of tiny coral animals. A coral reef is made of limestone, and consists of the remains of animal shells and plants. The living corals are only to be found upon the surface… The Great Barrier Reef is a mass of fossilized corals rising up from the ocean’s floor.
Coral reefs are of three types – barrier reefs, fringe reefs and atolls. Unlike fringe reefs (which are close to land), barrier reefs are often found far from land. At its widest, the Great Barrier Reef is almost 150 miles from the mainland, and contains more than six hundred coral islands!
There are many examples of
marine life to be found on the Great Barrier Reef, as the sea creatures (sea urchins, starfish, and crabs) make their homes on the coral reefs. Large fish also feed on the abundant marine life. Preserved in its natural state, life is plentiful in the Great Barrier Reef. The seaweeds and the shellfish, the sea-urchins and the starfish, are all exposed at low tide. But the Great Barrier Reef is also the home of a great variety of fish and mammals such as the dolphin, the sea-cow, the flying fish, the swordfish, sea anemones and the octopus. Turtles and tortoises are also to be found in abundance.
The variety (of marine life) and the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef are unsurpassed anywhere in the world. In fact, it would not be far wrong to term the Great Barrier Reef as a large aquarium that has been miraculously preserved in its natural state. But life is not limited to marine life – as the Great Barrier Reef is also the nesting ground for many different varieties of birds.
The Great Barrier Reef is the most popular tourist resort in Australia. Besides their beautiful seascapes and scenery, which is a magnet for holiday makers, the coral reefs also attract beachcombers, scientists, marine biologists, naturalists and fishermen. In former times, the Great Barrier Reef also used to be the center of the pearl industry, with oyster shells being exported for the manufacture of various ornaments.