Key Facts about Great Barrier Reef

About Great Barrier Reef

• It is a complex of coral reefs, shoals, and islets in the Pacific Ocean.
• It is located off the northeastern coast of Australia in the Coral Sea.
• It is the longest and largest reef complex in the world. It is the largest living structure on Earth.
• It extends in roughly a northwest-southeast direction for more than 2,300 km, at an offshore distance ranging from 16 to 160 km, and its width ranges from 60 to 250 km. 
• It has an area of some 350,000 square km.
• The reef, which is large enough to be visible from space, is made up of nearly 3,000 individual reefs and over 900 islands. 
• UNESCO declared the Great Barrier Reef a World Heritage Site in 1981.
• Much of the Great Barrier Reef is a marine protected area, managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority of Australia.
• Biodiversity:
  • It is estimated that the reef is home to around 2000 species of fish and around 600 different coral species.
  • It is home to 4,000 mollusk species and over 250 different shrimp species.
  • The reef is also home to six of the seven known species of sea turtles, more than a dozen sea snakes, and nearly two dozen species of birds.

Q1: What are Corals?

Corals are marine invertebrates or animals not possessing a spine. Each coral is called a polyp and thousands of such polyps live together to form a colony, which grows when polyps multiply to make copies of themselves. Corals share a symbiotic relationship with single-celled algae called zooxanthellae. The algae provides the coral with food and nutrients, which they make through photosynthesis, using the sun’s light. In turn, the corals give the algae a home and key nutrients. The zooxanthellae also give corals their bright colour.

Source: Ongoing coral bleaching at Great Barrier Reef may be as bad or worse than 2016 event