Cairns, Australia -- Great Barrier Reef

We took a large catamaran about an hour and fifteen minutes outside of Cairns harbor to a platform set up on the Great Barrier Reef.   We donned a full length black lycra dive suit, got flippers, mask and snorkel and had a guided snorkel with a marine biologist for about 45 minutes.  Then we did additional exploring on our own.

Honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed by the coral reef.  While there was abundant coral, there were not many fish and the colors were not very dramatic.  However, we did see some parrot fish, one or two clown fish, large blue starfish, and schools of small, silvery fish near the dive platform.  There were some large clams that were said to be 75 years old.

The Great Barrier Reef stretches for 1400 miles along the northeastern edge of Australia.  It is the largest continuous coral reef system on Earth and is visible from space.  Since it is such a delicate ecosystem, care is taken not to touch/damage the corals and discharge of waste water and chemicals is closely monitored in this area.  There is some bleaching (loss of color) occurring as ocean temperature rises and the algae inside the coral polyps gets stressed and leaves the coral animal.  The color of coral is due to the color of the algae which form a symbiotic relationship with the coral animals. So when the algae leaves, the remaining calcium carbonate structure is white.  It is estimated that up to 30% of the coral in the Great Barrier Reef has become bleached.

Suited up and ready to snorkel

Large clam