When one sees beauty, one cannot but want to foresee its future.  But also when one contemplates that beauty, even from distance and considers what it takes for it to exist, one also must be stirred into realizing the importance of preserving it for the future.

The Great Barrier Reef faces many challenges.  Its marine parks were set up by those insightful people who saw what was happening in the region and knew that it was important to discourage abuse or misuse.   To erode the preservations is to add another challenge to global warming and mining interests that increase traffic and pollution in a sensitive area.

A large proportion of people do not venture beneath its surfaces to see what is there.  Those who do are enriched by the life forms who conduct their lives, unseen by the many,  but with the innate intelligence of interactions.

There are those who indulge in the ‘sport’ of  ‘fishing’.   It became popular to think of hooking a fish, jagging and tearing its mouth or internal system with the hook and then ‘letting it go’…..how one is supposed to eat with the injuries not contemplated.

There are so many species beneath the waves…….thanks to Mr. Tony Tubbenhauer’s photos when he was there some time ago, we can catch glimpses of the beauty of some of the undersea dwellers, all going about the business of the lives to which they were born.

Perhaps the closest some will come to the undersea beauty is this screensaver, a clown fish, or the character Nemo beloved of children in the movie.

The real living beauty of the Great Barrier Reef is all our responsibilities, to ensure that  the momentary convenience of monetary matters does not jeopardize the reality.  For the Great Barrier Reef is the inheritance of centuries.

Individual Coral Reefs are formed by a wide variety of marine animals and plants. Coral forms by the slow accumulation and deposition of calcium carbonate (limestone) extracted from seawater.
The reef’s underlying framework is formed by stony corals and coralline red algae growing amidst the coral formations. The hard corals and coralline algae extract the materials from the seawater (shallow waters are rich in calcium and bicarbonate ions) and they combine them to form calcium carbonate or limestone.
Coral polyps use this to produce outer protective skeletons. With the passage of time their limestone skeletons form the coral reefs, which are built over decades and centuries.
Sponges and soft corals and other invertebrates assist the process as the corals grow and expand. Reefs can be atolls, barriers or fringing.
Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, consisting of polyps that cluster in groups. Polyps belong to the group which includes sea anemones and jellyfish. The corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons to support the coral polyps.

Nudibranch (‘naked lung’) beauty.  Including the Red Spanish Dancer (bottom left) and and Aeolid nudibranch (bottom right).

Photos by Tony Tubbenhauer.

The photos on these pages were taken by Mr. Tony Tubbenhauer and Mrs. Kath Tubbenhauer, during their dives over an extended period, when they both appreciated and recorded the great beauty that lies beneath the surface of the ocean.

The Reef  has taken countless millenia to produce the islands (built up by corals and the gradual accumulations of the growth upon many of them).  Immense respect for its systems are essential.

The islands provide nesting grounds for many species of birds.  The refuge of their natural harbours benefits the turtles who come to lay their eggs upon the shores.   The lagoons nurture the fish of so many species who reside there.

The Reef is also a fascinating adventure for tourists who appreciate its beauty.

Protections are always essential.   They become more necessary with climate change and also with other factors including the Crown of Thorns starfish which attacks the corals.

We have the greatest control over human custodianship – IF we are wise to more than the generation of moneys which will not compensate for the loss of this wonder of the world.

May we treat it wisely for it is irreplaceable.