The Great Barrier Reef is widely acclaimed as one of the world’s great natural treasurers. In 1981, the Great Barrier Reef gained international recognition through its inscription on the World Heritage List. The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is the world’s largest and is one of only a few World Heritage Areas that satisfy all four natural World Heritage Criteria. With its inscription as a World Heritage site, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) assumed responsibility for managing the Great Barrier Reef for the global community. A significant part of this responsibility includes the provision of regular reports to the World Heritage Committee. While these reports fulfil Australia’s international World Heritage obligations, they also provide the opportunity to synthesise and review a wide range of information on environmental, ecological, social and economic conditions and trends. In this respect, many of the principles behind State of the Environment reporting can be used as powerful diagnostic and strategic planning tools for the management of the Great Barrier Reef.

The reef is scattered with beautiful islands and idyllic coral cays and covers more than 300,000 square kilometres. The Great Barrier Reef system consists of more than 3000 reefs which range in size from 1 hectare to over 10,000 hectares in area. Dunk Island is one of more than 600 islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Human activity in the Reef areas has led to increased pollutants and the reef has suffered damage. Protecting the Reef is the responsibility of the Marine Park Authority. In 2003, the Australian Government and Queensland Governments, in partnership with a wide range of industry and community groups, have developed the Reef Water Quality Protection Reef Plan (the Reef Plan) as a combined effort to protect the Reef.

Of particular concern is wetlands - which have decreased by over 50 per cent since European settlement. The Great Barrier Reef Coastal Wetlands Protection Programme is developing measures for the long term conservation and management of priority wetlands.

Port Douglas is situated about 60 kilometers north of Cairns, and is one of the oldest towns in Far North Queensland and one of the best sites to access the diving on the great barrier reef. Back in the 1880’s it was a ‘boom’ town serving the needs of the pioneers working in the goldfields and servicing the smaller towns in the far north. When the takings from the goldfields petered out, because of the excellent growing properties of the region, it became the headquarters for the sugar industry.

Cairns, (pronounced Cans), Australia is an excellent base for your scuba diving and for a wide range of wilderness adventures, both on land and at sea, with new challenges always on offer. In this region, two seasons prevail. The ‘wet’, beginning in November and lasting until April, and the ‘dry’ for the rest of the year. During the summer months, (the ‘wet’) the wildlife is at it’s most active, waterfalls are gushing and the landscape comes to life.

Scuba diving & snorkeling  is the most  sought after outing onto the reef. With so much to see like ship wrecks, coral gardens, the thousands of species of marine animals and under water canyons. Cairns has many qualified scuba diving courses available and are amongst the safest in the world, with strict guidelines that trainers must follow. You can easily become a certified scuba diver and enjoy all the underwater attractions that the reef has to offer. 

Coral polyps: Coral reefs consist of hundreds and thousands of soft-bodied, invertebrate animals, having no backbone. These animals are called coral polyps. The individual polyp is radially symmetrical and has a tubular body with tentacles surrounding the mouth at the upper end. Each polyp’s body wall consists of two layers of cells, an outer layer called the ectoderm and an inner endoderm  layer. A gelatinous material called mesogloea is found in between these two layers. 
There are not many sharks around the Great Barrier Reef because they prefer the open sea. The ones commonly encountered are the white tip reef, very timid, and black tip reef sharks. They are easily identified by their markings and are often found on the ocean floor. The sharks found on the reef are fish eaters and pose no threat to visitors, unless harassed, when they may attack out of fear.

Coral reefs are colonies of billions of tiny jelly-like individual creatures that have joined together to form colonies which have been built up slowly over thousands of years. Coral is the hard outer skeleton which protects the soft bodies of the tiny animals. There are many hundreds of species and each has a different growth pattern, from mounds, sheets, fans, branches and antlers. Some are fast growing, some slower. Coral feeds mostly on plankton. It is the living coral that gives the reef its colourful appearance. The skeletal coral is white. Shallow warm water is the ideal environment, with lots of water movement, plenty of light, salty water and low in nutrients.

The coral may not appear as colourful as in books or other images. This is due to colours being filtered in the water at different depths. The white lights used in photographing the coral show up the true colours. This makes diving at night so spectacular.

Viewing of the reef is either by snorkelling, scuba diving, semi-submersible vessels, from a glass bottomed boat, or catamaran. There are also scenic helicopter flights.

With more than 2 million people visiting the area annually, tourism may have a negative effect due to human carelessness such as walking on the reefs, anchors dropped and dragged over the coral, pollution from boats and humans, and souveniring. There is support from tour operators, as well as government agencies, to try and preserve the Reef for future generations. Fishing in the area is restricted.

Another big threat is the Crown of Thorns starfish which, since the 1960s has been destroying the corals. Outbreaks of this starfish comes in cycles and has an impact on the reef and also sea and birdlife.