SDState Australia 2024: May 17th

Students are overjoyed to see the Great Barrier Reef on their way out to the island!

Today students had the opportunity to visit one of the biggest tourist destinations in Australia, The Great Barrier Reef. Home to a variety of different sea creatures, it stretches 1500 miles along the Northeastern coast of Australia. Many think this is one continuous reef, however, there are 2900 individual reefs. There are three main things the reef needs to grow: warm water, sunlight, and low nutrients. Along with this, the reef is only 20-30 meters deep which allowed the Great Barrier Reef to form. Even though this is a tourist attraction, there is no fishing or collecting allowed. They do allow other water activities such as scuba diving, and snorkeling, which do not disturb the reef.

Michaelmas Cay is a sandy beach where students enjoyed snorkeling in part of the Great Barrier Reef!

The island that we visited was called the Michaelmas Cay. These sand cays are formed by fragments of plants and animals’ skeletons. For vegetation to get on the new sand cay, birds bring seeds and fertilizer which will then germinate. The seeds take root and help stabilize the shifting sand to create a permanent home for sea life and birds.

The view of the ocean from Michaelmas Cay!

The reef is made up of corals, plants, and fish. The corals are in the same family as the jellyfish but have a solid skeleton. There are about 400 different species of coral. During the day, most corals pull themselves into their skeleton. Corals that have color such as yellow, orange, and brown are alive, whereas the white or colorless ones are dead. Of where we visited today, about five percent of the coral was bleached. There are not many plants within the reef we visited, but they are very important in the food web. Microscopic plants in the reef produce sugars by photosynthesis. The corals will absorb this sugar as 90% of their food. Lastly, the reef is home to over 1500 types of fish that carry out their own specific jobs to maintain the reef’s health.

Today’s ship was named Ocean Spirit!

One of the 1500 species of fish found within the reef!

During our time on the reef, students got the chance to listen to a marine biologist speak about the different types of coral and fish within the reef, went snorkeling and enjoyed a semi submarine tour. After a two-hour cruise on Ocean Spirit, they arrived on Michaelmas Cay. Here they spent about four hours enjoying the different shapes, sizes, and colors of coral within the reef. Students got to see a variety of fish such as the parrot fish, stingray, a baby shark, starfish, and much more.