Impact Of The Great Barrier Reef On The World Heritage Site

The Great Barrier Reef is located off the east coast of the Queensland mainland, as shown in figure 1. It is listed on The World Heritage Site as a natural site. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and stretches over 3000km of the Queensland coast. More than 2 million people visit this site each year for the scenic view and the thousands of different species that live in it. The Reef is affected by many threats due to coral bleaching, litter, pollution, global warming and climate change. The Great Barrier Reef was listed as an official World Heritage Site in 1981. It was listed; to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes
The Great Barrier Reef is a natural site, which is 500,000 years old. The Great Barrier Reef has not been inscribed on the World Heritage List as in danger. Although, like many other sites it does face many different threats. Like many other natural or cultural sites, The Great Barrier Reef faces many different threats and dangers. The biggest threats include; coral bleaching, pollution, climate change, global warming and human litter. All of these threats are affecting the survival of marine animals and the Great Barrier Reef in
Also, the coral helps to prevent damage and erosion. There are over 2 million people that visit the reef each year. The benefits of tourism are, it can spread education about reef ecosystems, and how to take care of them, as well as providing jobs and business opportunities for people. The increase of tourists can improve the planning and development of the site, as they would need more advanced ideas to keep the reef and guests that visit it, satisfied. There are also downsides to the amount of tourists coming each year. Negative impacts include, coral is damaged by reef walking, boats, and anchors being dropped down into the water and pollution from boat fuels. Some repercussions of climate change on The Great Barrier Reef can cause rising sea level temperatures, extreme weather. As shown in figure 4, the difference from the negative impacts from human activity to climate change. The impact from coral bleaching can cause warmer water temperatures as well as climate change. The Great Barrier Reef has positive and negative repercussions on the WHS community surrounding