Uploaded November 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
SUPPORT ME! (^_^): patreon.com/sonnietravels Sorry for the shaky underwater footage! The water was rough!
The Company We Used: cruisewhitsundays.com/great-barrier-reef-experiences/great-barrier-reef-adventures
Related Videos:
youtu.be/s3_sS0Ewk1M
The water in the bay area was beautiful and calm, but it didn’t stay that way for long!
The staff quickly started handing out vomit bags to everyone, putting on gloves, and getting garbage bags.
Keep an eye out for the constantly changing colors of water. All of which were gorgeous.
This was our first peak at the GBR! It’s no wonder it can be seen from space, look at the outstanding difference in color! The reef stretches for over 2,600 kilometers and is made up of over 2,900 individual reefs. And at last, we were at the pontoon at the Great Barrier reef!
There was a lot to do besides from just snorkeling which was great because they specifically told me not to go snorkeling until it was close to the point of leaving because the water would be calmer for me at that time.
As soon as we got onto the pontoon, we headed below to see some of the local wildlife!
See the ribbon on my snorkel? We all had to fill out health forms to show we were physically able to handle snorkeling. I was required to have one due to my health conditions so that the lifeguards knew to keep an extra close watch on me.
The GBR is the world’s largest coral reef system! It’s larger than the UK and about the size of Japan!
The water was actually MUCH warmer than the air. Thank goodness!
Pro-tip, it’s much easier to walk backwards in flippers.
To get the corals to look so colorful for documentaries, filmmakers will shine lights on them. But their natural look consists of more muted tones. I noticed this in Tobago too.
You may notice the white tips on the corals. That’s not coral bleaching from climate change. It’s actually new growth which is a really positive sign!
The largest threat to this reef, it’s creatures and our amazing oceans is climate change. With the temperatures of our ocean waters rising, the oxygen levels are dropping. This leads to stress on the corals which causes them to bleach and die.
Hope is not lost for our oceans and reefs, but global changes need to be made quickly in order to save them. Please contact your local government to show support for green and ecofriendly initiatives.
The current was really strong from the winds and kept pulling me back towards the boat and away from the reef. So this day proved to be more physically challenging than I initially thought it would be.
If you have money to spare, you can pay extra to go on tours, scuba drives, (jet rides), helicopter rides, and even stay the night on the float at the reeft! There are also professional photographers that take your picture at the reef, which are, of course, available for purchase, but everything you see us do in this video, is included in the main price.
This reef is home to whales, dolphins, sea turtles, porpoises, sea birds, sea snakes and over 1,500 species of fish. Approximately 10% of the world’s total species of fish can be found here!
Coral grows in roughly the same way that stalagtites and stallagmites do in cave systems. They build up over hundreds and thousands of years. Some dead coral has been dated back as far as 20 million years! So it’s important not to physically break or damage them.
We didn’t see or hear much about the harm to the reef from warming waters which I talk about later on too. One reason tour companies may not have discussed the issues facing the reef is because the damage has lead to a drop in tourism here which has impacted the local economies. Normally, over 2 million tourists visit the reef each year and they bring over 5 billion Australian dollars with them.
One wonderful thing about these types of tours is that they concentrate the tourists day after day into only certain points of the reef, leaving the rest to its natural and untouched state.
All too soon, it was time to leave and head back to mainland.
FOLLOW ME! (^_^):
*On Twitter: @SonnieTravels
*On Instagram: @SonnieTravels
SUPPORT ME! (^_^): patreon.com/sonnietravels Sorry for the shaky underwater footage! The water was rough!
The Company We Used: cruisewhitsundays.com/great-barrier-reef-experiences/great-barrier-reef-adventures
Related Videos:
youtu.be/s3_sS0Ewk1M
The water in the bay area was beautiful and calm, but it didn’t stay that way for long!
The staff quickly started handing out vomit bags to everyone, putting on gloves, and getting garbage bags.
Keep an eye out for the constantly changing colors of water. All of which were gorgeous.
This was our first peak at the GBR! It’s no wonder it can be seen from space, look at the outstanding difference in color! The reef stretches for over 2,600 kilometers and is made up of over 2,900 individual reefs. And at last, we were at the pontoon at the Great Barrier reef!
There was a lot to do besides from just snorkeling which was great because they specifically told me not to go snorkeling until it was close to the point of leaving because the water would be calmer for me at that time.
As soon as we got onto the pontoon, we headed below to see some of the local wildlife!
See the ribbon on my snorkel? We all had to fill out health forms to show we were physically able to handle snorkeling. I was required to have one due to my health conditions so that the lifeguards knew to keep an extra close watch on me.
The GBR is the world’s largest coral reef system! It’s larger than the UK and about the size of Japan!
The water was actually MUCH warmer than the air. Thank goodness!
Pro-tip, it’s much easier to walk backwards in flippers.
To get the corals to look so colorful for documentaries, filmmakers will shine lights on them. But their natural look consists of more muted tones. I noticed this in Tobago too.
You may notice the white tips on the corals. That’s not coral bleaching from climate change. It’s actually new growth which is a really positive sign!
The largest threat to this reef, it’s creatures and our amazing oceans is climate change. With the temperatures of our ocean waters rising, the oxygen levels are dropping. This leads to stress on the corals which causes them to bleach and die.
Hope is not lost for our oceans and reefs, but global changes need to be made quickly in order to save them. Please contact your local government to show support for green and ecofriendly initiatives.
The current was really strong from the winds and kept pulling me back towards the boat and away from the reef. So this day proved to be more physically challenging than I initially thought it would be.
If you have money to spare, you can pay extra to go on tours, scuba drives, (jet rides), helicopter rides, and even stay the night on the float at the reeft! There are also professional photographers that take your picture at the reef, which are, of course, available for purchase, but everything you see us do in this video, is included in the main price.
This reef is home to whales, dolphins, sea turtles, porpoises, sea birds, sea snakes and over 1,500 species of fish. Approximately 10% of the world’s total species of fish can be found here!
Coral grows in roughly the same way that stalagtites and stallagmites do in cave systems. They build up over hundreds and thousands of years. Some dead coral has been dated back as far as 20 million years! So it’s important not to physically break or damage them.
We didn’t see or hear much about the harm to the reef from warming waters which I talk about later on too. One reason tour companies may not have discussed the issues facing the reef is because the damage has lead to a drop in tourism here which has impacted the local economies. Normally, over 2 million tourists visit the reef each year and they bring over 5 billion Australian dollars with them.
One wonderful thing about these types of tours is that they concentrate the tourists day after day into only certain points of the reef, leaving the rest to its natural and untouched state.
All too soon, it was time to leave and head back to mainland.
FOLLOW ME! (^_^):
*On Twitter: @SonnieTravels
*On Instagram: @SonnieTravels
