The Great Barrier Reef

by Leo

The Great Barrier Reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of most beautiful places in the world and is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. That being said, The Great Barrier Reef hosts more than 1,500 species of fish, 411 types of hard coral, one-third of the world's soft corals, 134 species of sharks and rays, six of the world's seven species of threatened marine turtles, and more than 30 species of marine mammals. This ecosystem also is over 500,000 years old and over 134,634 miles long with over 2 million people who visit it every year!

This place is magnificent with lots of fish and ocean animals but the Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half of its corals since 1995 due to warmer seas driven by climate change. Scientists found all types of corals had suffered a decline across the world's largest reef system. The steepest falls came after mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.

Bleaching is when water is too warm, corals expel the algae living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead but kind of paralyzed in time. In 2005 the U.S. lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event. The Great Barrier Reef is at a critical tipping point and could disappear by 2050. But, if we stop climate change and bleaching we can save this majestic coral reef!