A UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Great Barrier Reef
Australia’s Living Sculpture

By Toni Dabbs 

From the air, it looks like nature has splattered a palette of deep colors onto a brilliant turquoise canvas: random patterns of cerulean, jade, violet. . . . Pretty as it is when viewed from above, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is best experienced from beneath the surface of the Coral Sea.

The “splatters” are thousands of individual coral reefs dotting the lagoon that lies between the northeastern coast of Australia and the larger outer reef. They begin just south of the Tropic of Capricorn and end in the Torres Strait near Papua New Guinea, a distance of 1,300 miles.

The colors seen from above the water are just shadows of those of the various corals that form the reefs: pale pink gorgonian coral; rosy stylophora pistillata; orange ascidians; lime green fauki lizardensis; golden daisy coral; and many more.

Corals might resemble plants, but they are really animals, and the reef structures comprise millions and millions of both living corals and their skeletons. As a result, the Great Barrier Reef is not only the most extensive reef system in the world, it also is the biggest structure made by living organisms. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.

Reef Life

A single coral animal is about one-hundredth of an inch in size. It consists of a tube-like fleshy cylinder, called a polyp, with a mouth at the top surrounded by a ring of tentacles. During daylight hours, most corals withdraw into the hard limestone skeletons that they produce. They emerge to feed at night, so it’s only then that a reef may be seen in its full glory.

The Great Barrier Reef is an ever-changing natural sculpture that began forming 12,000 years ago, when ice melted by global warming raised the sea level and submerged Australia’s continental shelf. This created an ideal environment for corals and the algae on which they feed.

The relationship between corals and algae is symbiotic. Corals eat the algae, and the algae in turn are fertilized by coral waste. Because algae require sunlight to convert the waste into energy, coral reefs rarely are found more than 90 feet below the surface of the water, which is the limit of sunlight penetration.

Corals are not the only source of color along the Great Barrier Reef. Living among its component reefs are approximately 2,000 species of fish exhibiting an array of hues: orange and white splotched clown anemone, electric blue damselfish, long-snouted yellow butterfly fish, bright pink fairy basslet, red and green striped harlequin tuskfish, to name a few.

Other reef creatures include a variety of echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, etc.), crustaceans (shrimps, crabs, lobsters, etc.) and molluscs (clams, squids, sea slugs, etc.), plus sponges, jellyfish, turtles, whales and dolphins.

Close Encounters

No wonder scuba divers and snorkelers consider the Great Barrier Reef to be the ultimate underwater experience! But visitors don’t have to don flippers and masks to view the wonders of the reef. One popular alternative is to reef walk, or simply stroll along a stretch of reef at low tide. Another is to take a glass-bottomed boat excursion.

These activities are accessible during day trips from mainland cities such as Cairns, where the reef is relatively close to the coast. For visitors who want to spend more time exploring the reef, 24 islands offer accommodations or camping facilities. Three of the best known islands are coral cays located right on the reef: Lady Elliot Island, Heron Island and Green Island.

Lady Elliot is the only cay on the Great Barrier Reef with an airstrip, and visitors are well advised to travel there by plane rather than boat. Located at the southern end of the reef, the 110-acre island seems to be a magnet for wayward ships and has been nicknamed “shipwreck island.” A simple no-frills place popular with divers, it has cabins and tents for 136 guests.

The Tropic of Capricorn virtually runs through Heron Island. The northeastern third of the 40-acre cay is home to a research station and 109-room deluxe resort; the rest is national park. The island has a huge bird population and attracts ecotourists as well as divers.

Green Island, just 17 miles offshore from Cairns, covers an area of only 30 acres. It has a 46-room hotel for visitors who want to stay overnight or longer, but two attractions also make it popular with day trippers: Marineland Melanesia, an aquarium and crocodile farm, and the Underwater Observatory, the oldest in the world, dating from 1954.

Pollution from increasing human population and excessive fishing is taking its toll on coral reefs around the world. Fortunately, many areas of the Great Barrier Reef are still in good condition. Realizing that active conservation is required to ensure they stay that way, the Australian government has established the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Purpose of the authority is to “provide for the protection, wise use, understanding and enjoyment of the Great Barrier Reef in perpetuity through the care and development of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.” To date, its efforts have placed 33.4% of the park into protected marine sanctuaries.

Toni Dabs is frequent contributor to The Cultured Traveler.