What is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park?
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects most of the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland. Created under a 1975 law, it covers about 344,000 square kilometres.
The park is managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, based in Townsville, together with the Queensland Government. It was one of the first large marine parks in the world.
In 1981 the Great Barrier Reef was listed as World Heritage. It includes about 3,000 individual reefs and hundreds of islands.
Zoning
Since 2004, about a third of the park has been green zones, where fishing and collecting are banned. Other zones allow fishing, tourism and shipping under rules.
Traditional Owners from many groups have connections to sea country in the park.
Visitors pay an environmental charge that helps fund management.
The authority runs reef health monitoring, crown-of-thorns starfish control and education programs, and it works with tourism operators who act as eyes on the water. Reef HQ in Townsville is its national education centre. Shipping routes through the reef are carefully controlled, and some areas require pilots to guide large ships. Scientists, rangers and Traditional Owners also work together on turtle and dugong protection.
Did You Know?
The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from space.