REEF ENCOUNTER

An expedition to the Great Barrier Reef aboard a superyacht in the name of science proves enlightening for STEPHEN CORBY. Here he explores the dangers to the reef and how we can help.

- STEPHEN CORBY

When it comes to putting your body on the line for the environment, glueing bits of it to the road is very much at the cussing edge (as stranded motorists scream at you) while sipping cocktails in a hot tub atop a 35-metre superyacht between delectable dives on the Great Barrier Reef is an infinitely more palatable approach.

There is still risk, of course, because some of us became so addicted to taking part in “Citizen Science” on board Beluga, a Port Douglas-based mega yacht normally chartered out for $22,500 a day, that we threatened to glue ourselves to the deck when it was time to leave.

Our chance to save the world one Martini at a time came thanks to Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, a whole new kind of charity that is attempting to tackle a problem of almost incomprehensible scale.

Yes, we know the world’s most iconic reef (and they’re all important; coral reefs cover less than one per cent of the ocean floor yet host 25 per cent of all estimated marine life) is having issues, with both coral-bleaching events and attacks by the violently virulent crown-of-thorns starfish, but the fact is we don’t have the whole picture.

That’s because the Great Barrier Reef is even bigger than you think – larger than Italy and roughly the size of Germany, and made up of more than 3000 reefs, strung along 2300 kilometres of coast line.