The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park covers approximately 344,400 square kilometres, making it one of the largest protected marine areas on Earth.
Australia created the Marine Park in 1975 to protect the Great Barrier Reef, which lies off Queensland’s northeastern coast in the Coral Sea. The protected area is much larger than the visible coral formations alone: it includes reefs, islands, seagrass beds, mangroves, deep channels, and open-water habitats.
A common mix-up is confusing the Marine Park’s area with the size of the reef system itself. The Great Barrier Reef stretches for more than 2,300 kilometres and consists of over 2,900 individual reefs and about 900 islands. The Marine Park is a legal management zone surrounding and incorporating these ecosystems, not one continuous wall of coral.
The reef was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. Its waters support more than 1,500 fish species, hundreds of coral species, sea turtles, dugongs, seabirds, and many other forms of marine life.