New species found on Barrier Reef, Cairns in Australia!

According to newspaper The Australian on 27 February 2006, the Great Barrier Reef Seabed Biodiversity Project was conducted last year by the CSIRO Marine. It covered 210,000sq kilometres of the continental shelf from Fraser Island to Cape York.

Read more about the survey and discoveries on The Australian`s website: News The Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef has been considered to be the largest natural living organism on earth. The reef is stretching more than 2,300 kilometres along the northeast coast of Australia from the northern tip of Queensland to just north of Bundaberg.

This natural wonder is notified on the World Heritage list by UNESCO. Based on this organisation`s description the Great Barrier Reef is a site of remarkable variety and beauty on the north-east coast of Australia. It contains the world's largest collection of coral reefs, with 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusc. It also holds great scientific interest as the habitat of species such as the dugong ("sea cow") and the large green turtle, which are threatened with extinction.

The Great Barrier Reef could be in danger. Scientists have estimated that all of the Greet Barrier Reef could vanish by 2025 if global warming continue to rise the sea temperatures. The coral has also been affected by epidemics the last years. It remains to see how the protecting of the diverse array of species and habitats found in the Great Barrier Reef will be handled.

Stein Morten Lund, 20 March 2006

Additional information
In April 2005 Australian scientists discovered coral reefs stretching 100 kilometres (62.5 miles) in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the north coast in Australia. It was indicated that these reefs could be at least 100,000 years old.

Actually it has been found larger coral reefs than The Great Barrier Reef in Norway for few years ago, but it`s not available for Scuba divers since it is located 100 - 200 metres below the surface.