The Great Barrier Reefs

Ever since I have been young, I have had the dream of exploring the Great Barrier Reef. Especially after my brother did a research project on ocean acidification and the effects on the coral, I asked my parents every single year to see if we could go to the reef. Finally, after graduation from high school, this dream became a reality. In the summer of 2018, I checked off the top of my bucket list and when snorkeling and diving in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
Instead of doing a one day trip, our family decided to live on a boat so that we could dive and snorkel for longer. We stayed on this boat for 3 days and 2 nights. Even though we took sea sickness medicine, the ocean currents were strong and I constantly got headaches and my schedule consisted of diving, taking a nap and the diving again. The eating situation was surprisingly pretty good and the food we had was mostly seafood.
Now onto the best part the diving. I had no prior diving experience before this, but the boat we lived on had a program where you would dive with a diving instructor. This allowed me to go down into the depths of the water even without a diving certificate. The organisms I saw were truly amazing. I saw all types of fish, from clown fish to small sharks. I saw 2 turtles swimming around. I saw some of the brightest coral I have ever seen. But there was one thing I was not expecting. Many of the reds and the oranges were absorbed by the surrounding water meaning that the colors were not as vibrant as I had in my mind. After this realization, however, I was still able to enjoy all that the reef had to offer. Unfortunately, I was unable to see any octopus or cuttlefish, two of the most interesting species in my opinion.
One of the saddest observations I saw was the dying of the reefs. We went snorkeling and diving in 9 different areas in total. But everywhere had something in common. You could see dying coral that had lost all color and was slowly shrinking. The image of this haunts my mind everyday and I hope that we have a solution soon in the future. We all need to watch our carbon footprints to lessen ocean acidification. Every person counts.

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