The ocean terrifies me. While I love going to the beach and cooling off with a quick dip in the water, I rarely ever go past the point where I cannot stand. Swimming in the open sea with the shoreline nowhere to be found is something I never thought I would bring myself to do, but yet again I find myself breaking out of my comfort zone on this trip of a lifetime. I have been told that swimming the Great Barrier Reef is a must when visiting Australia. To be quite honest the idea never appealed to me (probably because of my fear of the open ocean). However, when everyone decided to book a trip to Cairns to see the reef I found myself hitting the “purchase snorkeling trip” button on Tusa Dive’s website. Flash forward a few short months and the trip quickly approached despite my attempts to block the inevitable out of my thoughts. Then, the day arrived. We woke up at 6 AM, leaving our hotel at 7 AM to depart the Cairns Reef Marina at 8 AM on the Tusa T6. While I booked the snorkeling package, the group I was with booked the scuba diving package. This thought settled sourly in my stomach, as I suddenly realized I would be swimming the reef alone. I was to the point of almost peeing my pants of nerves, but I knew I needed to remain strong to bring myself to actually getting off the boat when it was time - I was not about to let that money spent go to waste. Then the scuba divers departed the boat, and I was left to struggle with putting my wetsuit on and waddling to the water in my less-than-practical flippers. Thankfully a sweet couple adopted me for the day into their snorkel group so that I would not go swimming alone. I mustered up the courage to finally jump into the ocean, and I was immediately hit with the awkward snorkeling sensations of 1) not being able to breathe through my nose, 2) being able to breathe underwater and 3) swimming with flippers. I suddenly realized I was swimming in the open ocean with who-knows-what swimming underneath me, and the shallow reef about a 50-foot swim from the boat. You bet I bolted to that reef as fast as I could swim. But man, I would relive the moment I hit the reef a thousand times if I could. I finally realized why the reason the Great Barrier Reef is number one on almost every “Australian bucket list” pin on Pinterest. Vibrant schools of fish weaving throughout the coral mazes. Sea plants rooting themselves amongst the ocean floor. A sea turtle galavanting about the reef. A rare spotted fish camouflaging itself, barely noticeable to the naked eye. Star fish and clams and shells galore. All these sea creatures manifesting themselves in the reef, calling it their home.
However, there is an eerie antithesis to this beautiful reef: so full of vibrant life, yet rapidly dying. Amongst pointing out the beauty to the Great Barrier Reef, a guide from the dive company consistently pointed out the coral bleaching occurring throughout the reef. This bleaching is a result from water temperatures rapidly increasing, causing the symbiotic algae that live in the coral to disperse from it - draining the coral of its color and life. This coral bleaching is a direct result of global warming and is killing the reef and many of its inhabitants. Additionally, the ocean is undergoing a rapid absorption of greenhouse gases expelled into the air, causing death for the reef as a result of increasingly acidic water. The dying coral is making the reef uninhabitable. Half of the Great Barrier Reef has died since 2016. While reefs have the properties to regenerate, the rate that the reef is dying and the conditions causing demise are too extreme right now to rely on nature taking its course. It is so crazy to me how the Great Barrier Reef - one of the seven natural wonders of the world, a World Heritage listed sight, the largest living structure on the planet (visible from space), the world's largest coral reef - is fighting to survive at the cost of the human footprint. Not only is the reef important to the Australian economy, as it boasts around 2 million visitors a year, but it is equally important for the biodiversity it enables. Seeing the dying reef in person was such an eye-opening experience for me. I find that it is sometimes hard to envision the future of the planet with global warming in play, but seeing a natural beauty visibly dying is a big slap in the face. Global warming is a thing. It is happening, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. The faster we work to fixing our mistakes on this planet, the better a future that generations to come will have. How sad it would be to know that we killed one of the seven natural wonders of the world. That future generations will never be able to gaze upon the beauty and biodiversity of the world we live in... xoxo, Samantha
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Karen
6/14/2022 09:11:02 pm
Thanks for all of these insights about the marine life as well as the scuba diving experience. I want to share a company that is specialized in diving classes. "Frog Dive". http://www.frogdive.com.au They have classes and courses that suits all diving skill levels. Thanks again!
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