The Great Barrier Reef  is amongst the seven wonders of the natural world, located just off the east coast of Australia. The reef is made up of 3000 individual reefs and 900 islands and it is the worlds largest ecosystem measuring to 3 000 kilometres long. It is one of Australia's biggest tourist attractions, but over the past few years pollution and climate change have cause the reef to change dramatically. 

There are plenty of water attractions in the Great Barrier Reef such as, the world's largest collection of corals (there are more than 400 different types of coral), coral sponges, molluscs, sting-rays, dolphins, over 1500 speices of tropical fish, more than 200 types of birds, around 20 types of reptiles including sea turtles and giant clams over 120 years old.

The coral 
Corals make up the various reefs and cays. These are the basis for the great variety of sea and animal life in the Reef. Coral consists of individual coral polyps - tiny live creatures which join together to form colonies. Each polyp lives inside a shell of aragonite, a type of calcium carbonate which is the hard shell we recognise as coral. The polyps join together to create forests of coloured coral in interesting fan, antler, brain and plate shapes.

The ideal environment for coral is shallow warm water where there is a lot of water movement, plenty of light, where the water is salty and low in nutrients. There are many different types of coral, some are slow growing and live to be hundreds of years old, others are faster growing. The colours of coral are created by algae. Only live coral is coloured, dead coral is white.