Snorkeling and Diving On the Reef

A griant metre long wrasse, which changes from female to male when they mature.

I enjoyed snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef off shore from Cairns and also here around the Whitsundays. Technically the reef that surrounds the islands is the inner part of the Great Barrier Reef. The actual reef is about fifty miles out to sea. More on that later.

I enjoyed swimming in the warm tropical waters of the Coral Sea and snorkeling or scuba diving to see the life on the reef.

The reef was beautiful in many places and there were lots of different fish, but I was disappointed in some ways. Because of the water clarity it is not as beautiful and colourful as seen on TV programs largely because they use lights to illuminate the reef and bring out all the colours of the corals. Although I saw lots of variety of healthy coral in lots of different colours, I still saw evidence of bleaching and other signs of stress on the reef. Bleaching is when the algae that lives in the coral either dies or leaves the animal and the coral just appears white. They think this is caused by the small change in sea temperature. Some of the reef gets damaged by tourism, with suntan lotion pollution, snorkelers kicking the formations and boats anchoring around it or crashing into it. I also read that because of the deforestation happening on shore that there is more erosion happening and more silt and runoff entering the sea and suffocating the coral. With the speed at which corals grow, especially to this size, it is really hard to see who the damage can be reversed and new growth encouraged.

I saw a wide variety of fish too but didn't see anything really amazing. No sharks, rays, sea snakes, octopus, crabs, and only one turtle. I confess to being disappointed by that. Part of the problem is over fishing especially for sharks for shark fin soup. Reefs are essentially islands of life with large oceans and distances between them, so I wonder how fish found on the reefs of the Caribbean are also found on the other side of the world on the Great Barrier Reef.

Everyone is worried about the state of the reef, from David Attenborough and all the marine biologists down to the people whose lives depend on it. The Great Barrier Reef provides employment for thousands of people in the tourism business. Everyone is saying to see it now before it disappears. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do so.