In which ocean is the Great Barrier Reef located?

The Great Barrier Reef is located in the Pacific Ocean, specifically within the Coral Sea off Queensland, Australia.

The reef follows Australia's northeastern coast for more than 2,300 kilometres. Although the Coral Sea is the most precise geographic description, it is a marginal sea of the southwestern Pacific, making “Pacific Ocean” the appropriate answer for this quiz. The reef is separated from the Queensland mainland by a channel that is broad in places.

The Great Barrier Reef is not one continuous wall. It is a vast system containing more than 2,900 individual reefs and hundreds of islands. Billions of tiny coral polyps build its limestone structures, which provide habitat for fish, turtles, dugongs, sea snakes, seabirds, and many other species.

The reef has long been important to Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, and much of it is protected within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, established in 1975. A common mix-up is answering “Coral Sea” instead of “Pacific Ocean”: Coral Sea is the local sea, while the Pacific is the larger ocean basin.