Great Barrier Reef Lecture

Today is an exciting lecture about the Great Barrier Reef. I wish we had enough time to go scuba dive the Great barrier reef. It's a true bucket list item.

The great barrier reef is 1430 miles long. Starts at the southern parts of Queensland and goes up to Papa New Guinea.

Daintree Rainforest is 180 million years old and kind of converges with the reef. It has the cassowary. Funny looking bird. The rainforest filters out the water before it reaches the reef, keeping it cleaner. The southern parts of the great barrier reef has rivers that converge into the ocean but they aren't filtered out so those pollutants will reach the reach.

Mangroves also act like a nursery for juvenile species before they leave to go live out on the reef. Saltwater crocodiles live out in the mangroves. Yikes.

Dugongs hang out near the seagrass in the northern areas.

Heart reef is a small reef on the great barrier reef, though quite a popular destination for snorkeling or diving.

There are over 2500 individual reefs and 900 sand cays and islands.

Great barrier reef formed 600,000- 800,000 years ago.

Fringing reef is close to the land mass. You can step off into the water onto the reef.

Barrier reef is when the land mass slowly erodes away so that there is a barrier between the land and the reef.

Atoll is when the land mass completely erodes away.

There are over 215 species of seabirds like the brown noddy and the brown booby, and wedge tailed shearwaters and sooty terns.

There are over 450 (probably closer to 600) species of coral like the galaxea coral, Xenia coral, Corals have a powerful smell if you smell them at low tide. They also have a mucus that protects them from the sun and can be used as sunscreen.

Over 9000 different species live on the great barrier reef.

30 species of whale and dolphin live on the Great barrier reef. Humpback whales included. Dwarf minke whale are quite a curious species. Bottlenose dolphins are out there. There are 6 of the worlds 7 species of sea turtles. Most common are green sea turtles. Their tissue is green. Hawksbill turtle have a hooked beak. Loggerhead turtles have a big head and chunky neck. Olive Ridley turtle and flat back turtle. Leatherback turtles is the biggest sea turtle and the only one without a hard shell.

Raine island in the North will have thousands of turtles come to reproduce.

17 species of sea snakes to include the olive sea snake and are venemous but also curious. Stay perfectly still so that they do not bite you.

Box jellyfish are out there. The most venemous on the planet. An adult jellyfish can cause fatality in an adult human in 2 - 3 minutes. Irukandji jellyfish has 17 species and they are quite venous also. There is anti venom for these. One of the symptoms of the venom is impending doom. They are super tiny.

Over 1500 fish species to include anemone fish, humphead maori wrasse, potato cod, Queensland grouper, parrotfish, bumphead parrotfish, butterfly fish.

65 species of sharks and rays to include the whale shark, epaulette shark, white tip reef shark, black tip reef shark, tiger shark, Oceanic whitetip, manta ray, spotted eagle ray, ornate eagle ray.

400 species of mollusk to include giant clams, octopus, cuttlefish, nudibranch.

30,000 species of crustacean to include peacock mantis shrimp, boxer crab, decorator crabs.

600 species of echinoderms to include crown of thorns sea star.Læs mere