Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the greatest natural treasures on the planet. And it needs our help. We find it hard to keep track of everything that's happening, places and names up at the Reef, so the team whipped up an infographic that really helped us and we want to share with you.

Everybody remembers their first dive. Well, take pity on me because my first dive was in Ireland, back in the 70s. I had no idea how great the underwater world could look until I moved to Australia, where I eventually made a living diving and educating people about the Great Barrier Reef.

As a contracted advisor to the planned Carmichael mega-mine, UK-based international bank Standard Chartered must be feeling rather exposed at the moment following a Hong Kong protest and then questions from Greenpeace at its annual general meeting in London.

Scientists made it clear that we have an important choice to make - we can have the Reef, or we can have coal, but we can’t have both.

This Monday, Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Shadow Environment Minister Mark Butler will be on the panel of the ABC’s Q&A programme.

If you’ve ever been diving in the Great Barrier Reef, you know why it’s a natural wonder revered all around the world. The Reef is a massive, vibrant, diverse underwater gem. It’s full of life and colour - and it needs your help.

Right now, there are some sinister plans underway for our Reef. Indian coal giant Adani is hoping to get approval to dredge in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area for their Carmichael megamine project.

Barbara Norman, University of Canberra; Iain McCalman, University of Sydney, and Terry Hughes, James Cook University

The Australian government is running a PR campaign to convince the world that the Great Barrier Reef is fine - most recently inviting international journalists to take a guided tour of the Reef.