We took the Divers Den charter for our day on the outer reef arriving at the marina at 8am. The boat held about 120 but fortunately there were only 48 passengers so it was not too crowded. We took our seasick tablets and they were needed as we endured a bumpy 90 minute trip to our first dive site in a ~2 metre swell.
The diversity of fish on the reef is astounding with each of them perfectly and uniquely adapted to their environment. However the reef corals are clearly damaged and appear stressed. The impact of climate change and human intrusion onto the sites we visited is telling.
The Great Barrier reef is the biggest landscape structure on earth and whether it can survive increasing sea temperatures is questionable. It seems Cairns ,a city of 160,000 and much of the economy of FNQ is based on tourism to the reef so its demise would have an enormous impact.A tip for any snorkeler - make sure you put sunscreen on the backs of your legs. I forgot to do this and paid dearly for the consequences after 3.5 hours in the water.
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