In a previous post, I wrote all about Hamilton Island, an island in the Whitsunday Islands chain that is now a vacation destination. While my family and I visited here, we were able to cross a very monumental item off our bucket list – to dive the Great Barrier Reef. Since my entire family is PADI scuba certified, visiting the reef was something we all wanted to experience and we were all very anxious to see the infamous underwater sight.
With over 2,900 individual reefs, the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef. Because it’s built up from billions of tiny coral polyps, it’s considered to be the world’s largest single structure made by living organisms! (Wikipedia.org) It was even made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, highlighting the diversity of sea life found in the coral. Even though most of the reef is protected in Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, it is still being impacted by rising sea temperatures, climate change, and pollution. Nevertheless, people still visit it everyday to see its natural wonder and the creatures that call the reef home.
