Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland

Great Barrier Reef's Photos By Leonard Low
Photo by: Leonard Low, Creative Commons

The Great Barrier Reef of Australia is an extensive complex of islets, shoals and, of course, coral reefs. It is located off of Australia’s northeastern coastline in the Pacific Ocean. The Reef expands over 1,250 miles to the northwest-southeast, at about 10 to 100 miles offshore, and is about 135,00 square miles in area. This wonder has been characterized as the biggest structure that living creatures have ever built.

There are actually 2,100 reefs and 800 fringing reefs around the Great Barrier Reef. All of the reefs, however, share a common origin. They have all been formed from the skeletal waste and skeletons of a living marine organism mass over the course of millions of years. The framework of the reef is formed from tiny creatures’ calcareous remains, which are known as hydro corals and coral polyps, and bryozoans and coralline algae are what holds it all together.

At the Great Barrier Reef, at least 300 different species of hard coral, worms, sponges, anemones, crabs, prawns, crayfish, lobsters, gastropods, and a wide variety of other fish, as well as birds, can be found. The crown-of-thorns-starfish is actually the reef’s most destructive animal, which has decreased the attraction and color of much the reefs due to feeding on a lot of the coral that is alive.

The Porolithon and Lithothamnion red algae forms most of the characteristic features of the Great Barrier Reef, and Halimeda green algae can be found nearly everywhere. On the surface, there isn’t as much plant life, with only 30 to 40 different species.

Great Barrier Reef

12 Responses to “Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland”

  1. Tambra Pannell says:
    April 22, 2009 at 10:19 am

    I really like the pic.s

  2. clownfish facts says:
    September 20, 2009 at 11:57 am

    wow…!!! lots of cool pictures. but the most i love is, clown fish. great work done by the post.

  3. sonya says:
    May 3, 2010 at 3:09 am

    well i really want to visit the great barriar reef it looks so bright and beautiful that what i would like

  4. sonya says:
    May 3, 2010 at 3:11 am

    woooooow\

  5. sonya says:
    May 3, 2010 at 3:12 am

    i reall ylike the flying fish and the dolphinssssss they are so cute

  6. Kiki says:
    May 21, 2010 at 8:41 am

    That was really kool!! But our Barrier reefs r being destroyed. I wish people wouldn’t liter or drive boats or in barrier reefs. the shark is a white tip

  7. scarlett says:
    May 25, 2010 at 11:23 am

    i learning about this place i need to know what trees there are in this place

  8. Annemarie Voogal says:
    January 17, 2011 at 9:40 pm

    Wow! Amazing. Now I need to get an underwater camera!
    I love photographing animals and seen many good shots, but these are just wow! Just Stunningly Beautiful. Id recommend it to beginner photographers to get the feeling of what a good photo looks like.

    (my favorite one is of the eel. Must have been a hard picture to take!)

  9. Annemarie Voogal says:
    January 17, 2011 at 9:44 pm

    Ive shown My Friends some of these pic and they completely agree that they are gorgeous

  10. Stunned says:
    January 17, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    Im stunned at the beauty of these Pics… I agree with Annemarie Voogal. Stunningly Beautiful!

  11. vishnupriya says:
    August 12, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    the pictures are very nice

  12. Talia LovinLife Spinks says:
    September 2, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    thse are the most adorable pictures i have ever seen OMG!!!!!!

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