Great Barrier Reef
🇮🇹 Australia📅 1981 Inscribed
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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.
Insight I
The world’s largest coral reef system (348,000 square kilometres), containing around 400 species of corals across 60 genera
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One of the few living structures visible from space, and among the richest and most complex natural ecosystems on Earth
Six of the world’s seven species of marine turtles inhabit the Great Barrier Reef, including Raine Island, the largest green turtle nesting site in the world
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Since 1985, the reef has lost over half of its coral cover
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