Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Queensland
Boardwalk through a mangrove forest featured in Estuarine Conservation Zone as part of The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Show map of Queensland Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Show map of Australia
Coordinates	18°34′4″S 148°33′19″E / 18.56778°S 148.55528°E / -18.56778; 148.55528
Established	1975
Area	343,966 km2 (132,806.0 sq mi)[1]
Managing authorities	Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service Queensland Fisheries
Website	Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports and shipping, recreation, scientific research and Indigenous traditional use. Fishing and the removal of artefacts or wildlife (fish, coral, seashells, etc.) is strictly regulated, and commercial shipping traffic must stick to certain specific defined shipping routes that avoid the most sensitive areas of the park. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest and best known coral reef ecosystem in the world. Its reefs, almost 3000 in total, represent about 10 per cent of all the coral reef areas in the world. It supports an amazing variety of biodiversity, providing a home to thousands of coral and other invertebrate species, bony fish, sharks, rays, marine mammals, marine turtles, sea snakes, as well as algae and other marine plants.^[2]