In order to protect these biological treasures, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was designated a World Heritage site in 1981. This colorful aquatic ecosystem is home to a staggering diversity of plant and lower animal life but is also frequented by larger species like dugongs, sea turtles, sharks, and dolphins.
Even the corals that construct the reef itself are diverse-numbering some 400 species.
Scientists estimate that the reef is home to 4,000 mollusk species and over 250 different shrimp species. Some 2,000 different fish species have been identified on the Great Barrier Reef, and new ones are found each year. Reefs grow only about half an inch (1.3 centimeters) a year. The magnificent structures we see today were produced by a slow process played out over millions of years. When corals die in countless numbers their limestone-secreted skeletons build upon one another to form the bedrock of the reef.
The reef system is the largest structure on Earth built by living organisms, tiny hard corals that are no bigger than a fingernail. It stretches over 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) north to south and covers some 135,000 square miles (350,000 square kilometers) in total. Sprawling off the east coast of Queensland, Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is not a single reef but a group of more than 2,800 distinct entities. You can spend a lifetime exploring the Great Barrier Reef and still not see all of this colorful coral realm-it’s nearly the size of Montana.
0 kommentar(er)
