Fitzroy Iceland - First attempts snorkel the Great Barrier Reef

Fitzroy Island is only 45 minutes by boat from Cairns and the East Coast of Australia. In Gegensastz to all the other overpriced snorkeling tours you can simply take the ferry and even from the beach snorkeling here. Just a few meters from the beach you will encounter a very interesting underwater world! Unfortunately, it was cloudy all day about something so due to the not so great view of the photos have not become sooo like you are used to from the catalog ....

So equipped with my Olympus Tough underwater camera, I went exploring.

This was discovered by James Cook Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world and takes place on the north east coast. Unfortunately zwischem 1985 and 2012, died about half of the corals. Blame is global warming, which is also to blame for the increased occurrence of cyclones, which destroy the corals. But the pollution of the sea and the occurrence of crown of thorns starfish add the reef to significant damage.

Nevertheless, the underwater world is very exciting here:
The giant clams, for example, can be found here everywhere. They are hard on the outside and soft on the inside and feed exclusively on algae.

In the coral a distinction between hard and soft corals and both are along with countless species of sponges found in abundance on the Fitzroy Iceland.

Also here a wide variety of fish species, such as this very well camouflaged green fish, then a blue stain triggerfish, a mini fish cavort also well hidden, a six-banded angelfish, a blue stripe rabbit fish, butter fish and parrot fish. These then were joined by even two turtles.

Oh yes, the island looked over the water from ;-), also very nice.

And here's the proof that I was really there and I swallowed about a total of 2 liters of salt water during dive! The Great Barrier Reef is definitely a must on every trip around the world, I'm looking forward to more!