Lying off the eastern coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is one thousand six hundred and sixteen miles long. Made up of three thousand individual reefs and nine hundred islands, the Great Barrier Reef is even visible from outer space. The Great Barrier Reef is home to an estimated thirty species, including whales, dolphins, turtles, water birds, birds of prey, sea snakes, clams, tropical fish and marine algae or seaweed. Considered to be the single largest organism in the world, it is also a World Heritage Site and is found on the list of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. With its' sheer magnitude and beauty, the Great Barrier Reef attracts, roughly, two million visitors, from all around the world, every year bringing in an estimated four thousand million Australian dollars annually. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was created in 1975 in order to control the activities in, and around, the Great Barrier Reef.
