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Click and Drag to Swim Around the Reef...
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the Earth's natural wonders. This coral reef system, half a million years old, 2300km long, and made up of 3000 reefs and 900 islands, is even visible from space. The system is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms.
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The reef is the home of countless billions of sea creatures, from the coral polyps that make up the structure of the reef, to invertebrates such as starfish and snails, to fish, sea snakes, saltwater crocodiles, turtles, dugongs, and whales.
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Parts of the reef have been under special protection since 1975, when the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority was founded. In 1981 it was named a World Heritage Site, and in 2006 the Queensland National Trust named it a state icon of Queensland.
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The oral histories of the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which stretch back thousands of years, tell that the Great Barrier Reef is an important part of local groups' cultures and spirituality.
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Today, the reef is a major tourist attraction, seeing around 2 million visitors a year. Many enjoying snorkelling and scuba diving around the Cairn and Whitsunday islands, but there's no need to get wet, the beaches are renowned as some of the best in the world.
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Despite this, the Great Barrier Reef is under threat, from pollution, overfishing, and climate change. In recent years, mass coral die-offs have increased and the reef has been destroyed by infestations of crown-of-thorns starfish.
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If we're to prevent the loss of this unique and beautiful habitat as well the species that depend on it, we'll need to do a lot more to save the Great Barrier Reef!
Walking Around the Corner of the 60 Dome Mosque in Bagerhat (2019-05) by CyArkCyArk
Concerned about the effects of Climate Change on our world and our heritage? You can discover more about human beings' relationship to their cultural past and environmental future with the Google Arts & Culture project, Heritage on the Edge
