The Great Barrier Reef is weged between two World Heritage Listed National Parks, on land there is the Daintree National Park with it amazing ancient rain forests, and on the other side there is the Great Barrier Reef Marina Park, our planet’s largest coral reef system made up of nearly three thousand individual reefs and nine hundred islands stretching for more than 2300 kilometres over an area of about 344,400 square kilometres.

The reef is located in the Coral Sea, another name for this part of the Pacific Ocean. The Great Barrier Reef is so large that it can be seen from outer space and is the world’s biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure built by many billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. It supports an amazing diversity of life and gained World Heritage listing in 1981. The Great Barrier Reef has long been used by the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is an important part of local groups’ cultures and spirituality. They have negotiated traditional fishing and hunting rights to be able to obtain meat such as dugong and turtle for traditional ceremonies.

A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which helps to limit the impact of human use, such as fishing and tourism. Other environmental pressures on the reef and its ecosystem include runoff, climate change accompanied by mass coral bleaching, and cyclic population outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish. Media often reports of coral bleaching and other environmental damage to the Great Barrier Reef, and while it has suffered somewhat from human impacts the reefs in north Queensland are in much better shape than in most other parts of the world. Below we have a selection of recommended reef tours who can show you this amazing eco system in all comfort and safety, and you can rest assured that all north Queensland reef tour operators adhere to the highest environmental standards to ensure minimum impact on the fragile eco systems.