Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef Latest News

The Great Barrier Reef has recorded its steepest decline in hard coral cover in almost four decades, as climate change-induced heat stress, cyclones and outbreaks of coral-eating starfish drive the ecosystem to the brink.

About Great Barrier Reef

• It is a complex of coral reefs, shoals, and islets in the Pacific Ocean off the northeastern coast of Australia in the Coral Sea.
• It is the longest and largest reef complex in the world and is the largest living structure on Earth.
• It extends in roughly a northwest-southeast direction for more than 2,000 km, at an offshore distance ranging from 16 to 160 km, and its width ranges from 60 to 250 km. 
• It has an area of some 350,000 sq.km. It makes up about 10 percent of the world’s coral reef ecosystems.
• The reef, which is large enough to be visible from space, actually consists of some 2,100 individual reefs and some 800 fringing reefs (formed around islands or bordering coastlines).
• It contains 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fishes, and 4,000 types of mollusks species. 
• 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.
• It also holds great scientific interest as the habitat of species such as the dugong (‘sea cow’) and the large green turtle, which are threatened with extinction.
• Much of the Great Barrier Reef is a marine protected area, managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority of Australia.
• UNESCO declared the Great Barrier Reef a World Heritage Site in 1981.

Source: DTE

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