Stretching for 1,429 miles over an area of approximately 133,000 square miles , the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world. The reef is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, in the Coral Sea.
The reef, which is large enough to be visible from space, is made up of nearly 3,000 individual reefs. Much of the Great Barrier Reef is a marine protected area, managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority of Australia.
The reef actually consists of some 2,100 individual reefs and some 800 fringing reefs (formed around islands or bordering coastlines). Many are dry or barely awash at low tide; some have islands of coral sand, or cays; and others fringe high islands or the mainland coast. In spite of this variety, the reefs share a common origin: each has been formed, over millions of years, from the skeletons and skeletal waste of a mass of living marine organisms. The “bricks” in the reef framework are formed by the calcareous remains of the tiny creatures known as coral polyps and hydrocorals, while the “cement” that binds these remains together is formed in large part by coralline algae and bryozoans. The interstices of this framework have been filled in by vast quantities of skeletal waste produced by the pounding of the waves and the depredations of boring organisms.
Forms of life include at least 450 species of hard coral as well as anemones, sponges, worms, gastropods, lobsters, crayfish, prawns, and crabs. More than 1,500 species of fishes and other vertebrates inhabit the reef. Some of the most common fishes include wrasses, damselfish, triggerfish, and angelfish, and larger species include rays and sharks (e.g., tiger sharks and whale sharks, the largest living fish). The reef is also home to six of the seven known species of sea turtles, more than a dozen sea snakes, and nearly two dozen species of birds.
Credit : Britannica
Picture Credit : Google
