The Great Barrier Reef Facts For Kids

♦ The great barrier reef is the largest reef in the world, it’s bigger than Italy!

♦ The great barrier reef is in good company. It’s considered one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Right there with it is the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and Northern Lights.

♦ I’m sure you have seen the Disney Pixar movie Finding Nemo, the clown fish (anemone fish) can be found all over the great barrier reef.

♦ It’s very beautiful, but can also be very dangerous. The great barrier reef hosts some of the deadliest creatures in the ocean. Watch out for the stone fish, box jellyfish and blue ringed octopus.

♦ There are some very large fish and some very small fish that call the great barrier reef home. The whale shark which can be as big as 12 meters and the stout fish which is only 7 millimeters are among the 1500 different fish species that live at the great barrier reef.

♦ To give it some scope,  the great barrier reef is about the size of 70 million football fields!

♦ The great barrier reef is visible from the moon.

♦ People love to visit the great barrier reef. It’s a huge money maker for the country of Australia. Tourism brings in around 4-5 billion dollars every year.

♦ It’s not just fish that thrive at the great barrier reef. There are 215 species of birds that call the reef home.

♦ You will find 6 different species of turtles at the great barrier reef. There is the Flatback, Olive Ridley, Hawksbill, Green, Loggerhead and the Leatherback. That is actually 6 out of 7 species found in the world. The only one not at the reef is the Kemp’s Ridley turtle, they are found in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Great Barrier Reef Facts For Kids

Cool Great Barrier Reef Stuff!

Check out some of the cool great barrier reef stuff you can get below!

 

The Great Barrier Reef Facts For Kids

Interesting Facts About The Great Barrier Reef

History of the great barrier reef.

The great barrier reef is actually around 20 million years old. It’s an ancient and very large home to living things. It’s made up of living coral growing on top of dead coral. There are many generations of coral that has died and turned into stone. It is now covered is a very diverse range of living creatures such as, anemones, sponges, worms, turtles, snakes, coral, algae crustaceans, star fish and many many more.

During the last ice age the water level dropped in the ocean exposing large parts of the great barrier reef. This allowed the aborigine people to venture out on to the reef on foot. This occurred around 40,000 years ago. When the ice age ended, the ice melted and flooded water back into the oceans raising the sea level. The dead coral now flourished and began to great living organisms again. It was around 10,000 years ago that the ice age ended, and about 8,000 years ago that the great barrier reef started growing again.

The Great Barrier Reef Facts For Kids

Interesting Facts About The Great Barrier Reef

There is an incredible amount of diversity with marine life at the great barrier reef.

• 450 types of corals
• 4000 types of molluscs
• 1500 types of fish

There are more species of animals and marine life found per cubic meter of the great barrier reef than any other environment in the world! This does also include the tropical rainforests and jungles. There are actually more species of animals in the great barrier reef than the entire Caribbean Ocean.

Check out the chart below to see how many different kinds of species of animal can be found at the great barrier reef.

The Great Barrier Reef Facts For Kids

Check out this really cool video that gives you some awesome info about the Great Barrier Reef.

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The Great Barrier Reef Facts For Kids

Interesting Facts About The Great Barrier Reef

I’m so glad you stopped by today. It’s very important for people to know about large Eco systems like this. Just knowing and understanding it can help our world preserve and take care of the Great Barrier Reef. Every day man does things that can endanger this wondrous natural structure.

I strongly encourage you to visit the website below to learn more about the threats than endanger the great barrier reef. You can also find out what you can do to help protect it. It’s important not to just know about the reef, but see what things are in your power to help protect it. Everyone can make a difference!