Great Barrier Reef

CORAL REEF BASICS

This zone is about the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, which is the ultimate example of a coral reef ecosystem.  It extends from the tip of North Queensland a thousand kilometers down the coast.  Beyond that, the East Australian current carries fish and coral spawn as far south as Northern New South Wales where I live.  On the Solitary Islands we find the southernmost extension of the Reef.  Going north beyond Queensland the reefs continue throughout the tropical South Pacific.

Coral reefs represent just 5 percent of the oceans but 90 percent of marine diversity.  They are the rainforests of the sea with an incredible diversity of life forms.  These life forms are more accessible than rainforest animals.  All you have to do is put on a mask and snorkel, stick your head under the water and the reef comes alive around you.  The Solitary Islands at the southernost end of the Great Barrier Reef sport some 500 species of fish.  Go up to Heron Island in the Capricornia Group and the number of fish species doubles to over a thousand.  Go up to the Reef off far north Queensland and you will find 1500 species of fish.  The number of invertebrate species is beyond count.

I am a biologist so this site will mostly be about biology, not tourism.  And my knowledge is limited to Heron and Masthead Islands in the Capricornia Group and the Solitary Islands in the south so the data and photos will be heavily weighted to these regions.  But this subject is so big that limits will have to be set.  No single Zone could hope to encompass all that the Reef is.