The Great Barrier Reef!

Friday, March 30








Today we went to the Great Barrier Reef!
We saw many things from Brain Coral to Huge Cod!
Before I tell you what marine life we saw I will tell you a story about how this beautiful reef was discovered.
In 1770 Captian James Cook (the "founder" of Australia) was sailing along when his boat crashed into a huge underwater coral bed full of sharks, brain coral, fan coral, clown fish, anemones, and many other spectacular things. When Cook hit the reef he said; "Great! A barrier reef!" Cook couldn't get his boat off the reef, so he came up with a plan. He would throw everything he didn't need off his ship. He threw the cannons, furniture and wine and beer off the side of the boat. Lucky for him his plan worked. As the tide came in his boat floated off the reef.
What cook didn't know then was he had crashed into what would become one of Unesco's world heritage sights and one of the largest tourist attractions a little less than 2,000 years later. Today the reef is 1,200 miles or 2,000 kilometers long and holds some very rare beautiful fish and coral.
Last I will tell you that 2- 18 million years ago, coral formations started, although the newest corals are less than 10,000 years old. The most important living thing on the reef is the one you can't see. These are the Coral Polyps. Coral Polyps are the creatures that make the reef in massive colonies. Although these are tiny little creatures, they are supported by even tinier creatures that live inside the coral called Zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae are a kind of Phytoplankton (a single-celled plant that uses photosynthesis and make 98% of the food for the different corals throughout the reef and other reefs around the world.
Sadly, people have begun to notice that human development has assaulted the reef in many ways. The reef is so fragile that many things could harm it and it's wildlife (one example is sugar cane fertilizer). People aren't the only thing that effect the reef though, climate change is also a huge factor to this issue. Many of these issues have been seen by people, but, as these issues grow larger it will become more and more apparent.
There are many things beautiful about this reef and we don't want to destroy it. It is one of the most beautiful, breathtaking, and amazing places on earth and everybody should get to enjoy it.



-Marin-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
http://www.theage.com.au/national/great-barrier-reef-faces-catastrophe-20090902-f8fv.html
http://www.barrierreefaustralia.com/the-great-barrier-reef/coralfacts.htm

Location:Coral Sea, Qustralia