The Great Barrier Reef

I've been SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef twice now. Once, on my birthday as a present to myself and once a week later as a birthday present from my parents! SCUBA diving in general is really amazing, so people ask me "what's special about the GBR?". To me the most amazing part is the coral... it is so diverse and the colonies are huge- the biggest I've ever seen. And to be able to float by effortlessly and watch the individual corals wave in the current and the tiny fish darting in and out from their protection is really amazing. It's hard to imagine a place like this ceasing to exist, but it has a lot stacked up against it, warming oceans, UV radiation, silt from costal development, pollution, and tourists. Here's to hoping we figure out how to keep it around for future generations!