The Great Barrier Reef includes over 2,900 reefs, around 940 islands and cays, and stretches 2,300 kms along the Queensland coastline. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is 345,000 km2, that's larger than the entire area of the UK and Ireland combined!
The reef is immensely diverse with 1,500 species of fish, 359 types of hard coral, one third of the world's soft corals, 175 bird species, six of the world's seven species of threatened marine turtle and more than 30 species of marine mammals including vulnerable dugongs.
Add to that stunning marine life are 5,000 to 8,000 molluscs and thousands of different sponges, worms, crustaceans, 800 species of echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins) and 215 bird species, of which 29 are seabirds.
The Great Barrier Reef is listed under all four natural World Heritage criteria for its outstanding universal value.
A natural investment
Protecting the reef has benefits beyond conservation - it is also an investment that helps provide security for coastal communities and provides significant benefits to the Australian economy. Reef industries, which are reliant on a healthy environment in which to operate, contributed approximately $5.8 billion to the Australian economy in 2004 and employed about 63,000 people.
Protecting our marine wonderland
Historically, the Reef has been regarded as a well-protected, pristine wonderland - a place of delicate corals, abundant fish life and a haven for other marine life. As scientists came to understand more about the reef's complexities, a different picture emerged - overfishing, land-based pollution and coral bleaching exacerbated by increased sea temperatures due to global warming are all impacting upon its natural wealth.
Immediate action was required to protect the reef because only 4.6% of the reef was fully protected. As a result of public campaigning and pressure from WWF, the Australian Government committed to a plan to protect 33% of the reef.
What does 33% protection mean?
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) zoning plan was implemented in 2004. Its most significant feature is a network of marine sanctuaries that stretch from the Park's northernmost to southern boundaries. This is the world's largest network of marine sanctuaries and covers over a third of the Marine Park - protecting over 11 million hectares.
Scientists have identified 70 different distinct biological regions in the GBRMP, representing the entire range of its plants and animals. A minimum percentage of each biological region is protected from fishing in order to maintain the health and resilience of the ecosystem and to protect the full range of biodiversity in the marine park.
How is the Reef under threat?
The amount of sediment flowing from the land into the marine park from its catchment area has quadrupled over the past 150 years due largely to grazing and cropping expansion in the catchment and loss of native vegetation and wetlands.
The reef has experienced two mass coral bleaching events - in 1998 and 2002. Bleaching was more severe in 2002, with aerial surveys finding that almost 60% of reefs were bleached to some degree.
Not only is the reef subject to high levels of fishing pressure, other fishing practices such as seafloor trawling for prawns are still permitted in over half of the marine park, resulting in untargeted fish capture (by-catch) and destruction of the seafloor.
The reef is immensely diverse with 1,500 species of fish, 359 types of hard coral, one third of the world's soft corals, 175 bird species, six of the world's seven species of threatened marine turtle and more than 30 species of marine mammals including vulnerable dugongs.Add to that stunning marine life are 5,000 to 8,000 molluscs and thousands of different sponges, worms, crustaceans, 800 species of echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins) and 215 bird species, of which 29 are seabirds.
The Great Barrier Reef is listed under all four natural World Heritage criteria for its outstanding universal value.
A natural investment
Protecting the reef has benefits beyond conservation - it is also an investment that helps provide security for coastal communities and provides significant benefits to the Australian economy. Reef industries, which are reliant on a healthy environment in which to operate, contributed approximately $5.8 billion to the Australian economy in 2004 and employed about 63,000 people.
Protecting our marine wonderland
Historically, the Reef has been regarded as a well-protected, pristine wonderland - a place of delicate corals, abundant fish life and a haven for other marine life. As scientists came to understand more about the reef's complexities, a different picture emerged - overfishing, land-based pollution and coral bleaching exacerbated by increased sea temperatures due to global warming are all impacting upon its natural wealth.
Immediate action was required to protect the reef because only 4.6% of the reef was fully protected. As a result of public campaigning and pressure from WWF, the Australian Government committed to a plan to protect 33% of the reef.
What does 33% protection mean?
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) zoning plan was implemented in 2004. Its most significant feature is a network of marine sanctuaries that stretch from the Park's northernmost to southern boundaries. This is the world's largest network of marine sanctuaries and covers over a third of the Marine Park - protecting over 11 million hectares.
Scientists have identified 70 different distinct biological regions in the GBRMP, representing the entire range of its plants and animals. A minimum percentage of each biological region is protected from fishing in order to maintain the health and resilience of the ecosystem and to protect the full range of biodiversity in the marine park.
How is the Reef under threat?The amount of sediment flowing from the land into the marine park from its catchment area has quadrupled over the past 150 years due largely to grazing and cropping expansion in the catchment and loss of native vegetation and wetlands.
The reef has experienced two mass coral bleaching events - in 1998 and 2002. Bleaching was more severe in 2002, with aerial surveys finding that almost 60% of reefs were bleached to some degree.
Not only is the reef subject to high levels of fishing pressure, other fishing practices such as seafloor trawling for prawns are still permitted in over half of the marine park, resulting in untargeted fish capture (by-catch) and destruction of the seafloor.
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