November 9, 2023 – THEME WEEK DAY 4

Our theme week on World Heritage Sites continues today with the Great Barrier Reef! It’s the largest coral reef system in the world, so big it can be seen from space! It’s made up of nearly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands, stretching for over 1,400 miles over an area of around 133,000 square miles. The reef is made up of and built by billions of tiny organisms called coral polyps. The living corals that form the reef now sit on top of old, dead structures that could be up to 20 million years old.
The Great Barrier Reef has long been known to and used by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander peoples and is an important part of their cultures. The first European to spot it was James Cook in 1770, who ran his ship aground on the reef while sailing and mapping the east coast of Australia.
The Great Barrier Reef supports an incredible diversity of life, including many vulnerable and endangered species. This includes more than 30 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises and over 1,500 fish species. Overall, 25% of all known marine species call the reef home.
A large part of the Great Barrier Reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which helps to limit the impact of human use, such as fishing and tourism. It’s a very popular tourist destination, especially for scuba divers. Around 2 million people visit each year.
Although the Great Barrier Reef is still massive, it’s about half as large as it was just 30 years ago. A study by the Australian Institute of Marine Science in 2012 determined that 50% of the reef system had deteriorated since 1985. This is due to factors like storm damage, predatory crown-of-thorns starfish (which eat the living coral), and coral bleaching. But there is good news – a 2022 report on the status of the reef showed the greatest recovery in 36 years.
The Great Barrier Reef is the only place on Earth where 2 UNESCO World Heritage Sites meet! The reef sits along the coastline of the Wet Tropics of Queensland, the oldest rainforest in the world, which was made a World Heritage Site in 1988. Learn more here.