The Great Barrier Reef

 It is hard to think of the coral as a living animal. Imagine turning to stone on the outside like much of the coral.  How can an animal turn to stone and still be alive. The Great Barrier Reef stretches over 2000 km in length. Once a year the coral reproduces and we were lucky to be here to witness the event. What you see are  all these tiny speckles being released into the water. The soft coral shaped like little volcanoes ejects this stuff. Fish hang around to eat the specks. The coral is possibly varied in colour in other parts of the ocean but what we saw was mostly all one color, but many different shapes. Now lurking there is the irukandji . It is a very tiny jellyfish, invisible to the eye and the most venomous creature in the world. If you get stung you are in for likely death and huge horrible pain lasting at least days. Apparently a large swarm of these was found off a nearby island. In the past week 3 people have been stung. It scares tourists so the govt plays it down. We were given stinger suits to wear but apparently the people who were stung were stung in little gaps that are exposed in the stinger suit. The irukandji are swept around by current and winds. When looking at the coral we were aware of the irukandji but are here to tell. :)