Australia’s Great Barrier Reef ‘In Danger’: The Threats, The Plan And What We Stand To Lose

International Business Times

30 August 2013

From above, Lady Elliot Island appears off Australia’s Fraser Coast like a tiny green discus in the vast blue of the Coral Sea. Up close, it's a place of exquisite details, and once I find myself 17 meters (55 feet) below the surface of its turquoise outer fringe, its not-so-tiny wonders come into sharp focus.

There are whitetip sharks that squirrel past and send pangs of electricity up my spine. There are mammoth manta rays the size of a car and the shape of a pancake gliding by, all in a row, en route to a “cleaning station.” There are green and loggerhead turtles, which make graceful cameos before meandering away onto a distant reef shelf, and unseen humpback whales whose moans become the eery ballads of the winter sea. Read more