Travel Oz: The Great Barrier Reef

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00:00The Great Barrier Reef, truly one of nature's gifts, packaged in luminous colours, sustaining

00:15a myriad of oceanic life.

00:22And slowly coming under threat from global warming.

00:29A mass of almost 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands, the reef is 2,500km long.

00:43The coral of the Great Barrier Reef is a living, breathing animal, home to a myriad of amazing

00:49creatures.

01:03The reef comprises millions of spineless animals known as coral polyps.

01:08These minuscule organisms spawn 4 or 5 days after the magical glow of a full moon in November.

01:16Born in the moonlight, coral thrives in sunlight.

01:21The world's largest coral reef system stretches like a huge underwater rainbow, yet the rainbow

01:28is fading.

01:30Rising sea temperatures due to global warming is causing coral bleaching, leaving only white

01:36skeletons of these once bright organisms.

01:41However, if the stress continues, the coral perishes.

01:46The coral colony's other natural enemy, the crown-of-thorns starfish, can destroy up to

01:52six square metres of reef in one year.

01:55For all its tragedies, this natural wonder continues to be triumphant, offering shelter

02:01to preyed-upon fish, controlling levels of carbon dioxide in the sea, and protecting

02:08coasts from strong waves.

02:11Any wonder this magnificent World Heritage Site is the greatest reef.

02:31It's the source of all life on the reef, the magnificent, synchronised mass-spawning of

02:36coral.

02:51For just a few hours each year, the marine world turns on its own equivalent of a fireworks

02:57display.

03:00Corals, both soft and hard, release their eggs and sperm into the water simultaneously.

03:09It's a phenomenon which only takes place when the water temperature and tides are precisely

03:14right, usually after the first full moon in November.

03:24What washes over the reef is a kaleidoscope of colours.

03:27Cells by the millions trying to find each other and fertilise.

03:36From this mass-spawning, more than 300 species of corals are formed.

03:47One by one the corals combine, eventually creating the most complex and stunningly beautiful

03:53ecosystem on Earth.

03:59The underwater wonderland that evolves attracts its own equally colourful and very specialised

04:04residents.

04:06The most spectacular and diverse of fish and plant life.

04:21One species that makes the Great Barrier Reef its summer playground are the southern

04:25humpback whales.

04:27They've swum 5,000 kilometres from the Antarctic to give birth and mate here on the reef.

04:33This calf is just a few weeks old.

04:35It floats just above its mother's head as she lazes in the warm tropical waters.

04:45Vying for this mother's attention are two sub-adult males.

04:49They're in a very playful mood, slapping their pectoral fins.

04:59Spy-hopping.

05:05Tail-slapping.

05:13And finally, breaching.

05:23What you're watching here is a mammal that weighs as much as 600 people.

05:29Here on the Barrier Reef they're both playful and inquisitive.

05:33Boisterous, then graceful.

05:40There are now some 8,000 humpback whales that migrate to the Great Barrier Reef every summer.

05:45Well up from the population of just 200 left when whaling ended 40 years ago, but still

05:50well down on the estimated 20,000 that once came here.

06:00Another graceful beauty found in abundance in these waters are the largest of the rays,

06:05the manta rays.

06:07These mantas are feeding on one of their favourite food sources, plankton, which today is being

06:11swept along in a surface current.

06:16They're like ballerinas, using their giant pectoral fins or wings to perform backflips.

06:28Some mantas are so big their wings are as long as a car.

06:36As they camouflage themselves from their greatest predator, the shark, they're commonly

06:40coloured black on top and white below.

06:50Sharks are indeed at the top of the food chain, the master predator.

06:56Many species of sharks have made the reef their home, cruising above the coral in menacing

07:01ways of evolutionary perfection.

07:07Particularly foreboding are these grey reef sharks that charge at any creature that invades

07:11their territory.

07:21To the unwary, second chances are rare.

07:28Like their cousins all over the world, they're most active at dusk.

07:34It's then that they use their formidable weapons, highly sensitive receptors that allow them

07:39to respond to the slightest movement.

07:44Brute power and agility to overwhelm their victims, and staggering jaw strength to crush

07:50them.

07:55Almost as feared as the moray eel.

08:01Theirs is a thick and smooth skin, enabling them to move gracefully through the labyrinth

08:06of coral forests.

08:11Sea snakes too strike fear in the hearts of many.

08:19They're extremely venomous and highly inquisitive.

08:26But unless provoked they won't attack.

08:33Another deceptively dangerous creature is the butterfly cod.

08:37It's stunning beauty comes at a price to the foolhardy.

08:50They're like creatures from another planet.

08:53Monstrous eyes, minute head, weird body, ugly appendages.

08:59You're watching the very rare stomatopod.

09:09Those razor sharp limbs mark him as a vicious killer.

09:12He uses them to spear passing fish to death.

09:22It's even rarer to see him swim because normally he'll hide in burrows.

09:36Stingrays too can cause nasty injuries or even death.

09:42With one of the most common and larger of the rays being the bull ray.

09:51Under threat the stingray uses the sharp barb at the end of the tail to inject a lethal poison.

09:57Rays are bottom feeders, feasting primarily on mollusks and crustaceans.

10:05One ray endemic to Australia is the shovel-nosed ray,

10:09characterised by its wedge-shaped disc and long triangular snout.

10:15While all of these hunters of the reef might terrify humans,

10:18they act as guardians of nature's most beautiful tapestry.

10:33Amid the pulsating, heaving rhythm of life in the deep,

10:36lie the most explosive and vibrant colours to be found on earth.

11:00These beautiful forests of colour are filled with neon coloured fish.

11:23And these tiny nudibranchs are referred to as the butterflies of the sea,

11:28a photographer's prize bounty.

11:34Other fascinating reef dwellers abound, the lizardfish

11:40and the garden eel, so timid that it emerges only partly from its hole.

11:48These leaf fish drift along with the currents,

11:51their presence almost unnoticed by potential predators.

11:57All over the reef turtles are in abundance.

12:02These graceful swimmers are usually loners, that is until the time to mate.

12:11It's then that the female turtles can be seen swimming to the surface,

12:14trying to fend off amorous males.

12:20Of all the creatures that use colour to adapt to their surroundings,

12:24none does it more dramatically than the octopus.

12:37So skilled are they in the art of camouflage they're rarely seen.

12:59Just how healthy and well preserved the Great Barrier Reef is in the future

13:03now depends on our ability to read the warning signs.

13:10The level of damage already sustained has to be monitored

13:13and one of the most successful ways of achieving that

13:16is to measure the well-being of its residents.

13:23Today, tough new measures are helping to safeguard and protect

13:27the Great Barrier Reef for the future.

13:32In the world, up to one-third of all reefs are not expected to survive the next generation.

13:40But hopefully Australia's tough new policies have placed the future

13:44of the world's greatest reef on the road to recovery.

14:02.

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