The Best Way To Experience Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

I’ve been fortunate to snorkel in the Red Sea, the Galapagos Islands, and various reefs in Hawaii and the Caribbean. None came remotely close to plunging into the South Pacific Ocean and snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef. That first view of an underwater landscape of corals in a vast number of colors, shapes, and textures was a veritable octopus’s garden. What made it genuinely dazzling were the immense schools of colorful parrot fish, the manta rays, sighting a Māori Wrasse, and spotting a white-tipped-reef-shark swimming in the depths below me.

“Sharks are a sign of reef health,” said Alan Wallish, the founder of Passions of Paradise, a company that offers tours of the Great Barrier Reef. “Everything must go right to have sharks on the reef.”

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is all about superlatives. It is the world’s largest coral reef, extending some 1,400 miles off the east coast of Australia and covering some 133,000 square miles. It can be seen from outer space. Within this vast ecosystem are more than 3,000 individual reef systems, 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish, and 4,000 types of mollusks. The reef was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site decades ago. It is also under considerable pressure due to climate change.

The statistics tell you one thing; the reality is something else. The sleepy tropical city of Cairns in Queensland is the epicenter of snorkeling and diving tours to the reef. Stroll along the waterfront in the morning, and there’s buzzing on the docks as more than two dozen outfitters get ready to take people out on the water. You can sign up for one of the many cruises that get people out to the dive sites quickly, get them in the water, and then bring them back to shore to Cairns, cocktail in hand. A motley flotilla of such craft, many of them with the aura of party boats, leave Cairns every morning around 8 am.

Given the state of the world, it made sense that a day on the reef should amount to more than sightseeing and a sunburn. That’s why I chose Passions of Paradise and departed Cairns on their motorized catamaran, Passions III, a 30-meter craft that’s one of the largest sailing catamarans in Australia. It’s capable of reaching the outermost edge of the reef.

Yes, it’s a fantastic day trip for snorkelers and divers, and you could elect to have a great day on the water. I wanted to take it to another level with an eco-minded tour operator that mingles citizen science with a life-changing underwater experience, spending your time onboard and in the water with someone schooled in marine biology.

“People want a connection to the reef,” said Wallish, who was on board that day. “I started the business back in the 80s when Cairns was more like the wild west and pretty much unregulated. Now our clientele is younger, and climate change is on their mind. And this is one of the most bio-diverse areas in the world.”

Passions of Paradise is that rare company that’s an Eco-Certified Ecotourism operator administered by Eco Tourism Australia. They’re involved in the Coral Nurture Program and the first outfitter in Cairns to donate a portion of every dive certification to Project AWARE, one of the largest marine conservation organizations in the world.

What I found especially intriguing was their support of The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s “Eye on the Reef” Program,” which does surveys on the reef’s health. I had elected to join the Eye on the Reef group on this voyage.

In theory, we had 27 different moorings to choose from based on time, tide, and wind conditions. On this day, it was exceptionally calm, and the winds were low, so we traveled to the edge of the reef for nearly two hours to snorkel and dive on Milln Reef. Our first location was called Whale Bommie, and, in the afternoon, we stopped at Three Sisters, one of the last points on Milln Reef, before the continental shelf dropped off.

There were 95 of us on the roomy boat and a crew of 14 to keep things running smoothly. We wore black lycra “stinger” suits as protection against possible jellyfish stings, though no one got stung, nor did we see any of these creatures.

Le’a Dawes, one of two Master Reef Guides on the boat, was in charge of my group. There were whiteboards, waterproof markers, and underwater cameras for those who wanted to keep tabs on the fish and coral they spotted during the two-hour morning snorkel and the hour or so we spent in the water after lunch.

“When you have a reef twice the length of Italy, you need all the help you can get to monitor it,” she said. “It’s a very complex ecosystem, and we’re still learning about it.”

You’re gathering and recording data during your time in the water. The work can include tracking fish populations and doing rapid monitoring surveys, indicators of reef health, which can mean 10-minute timed swims in a small, designated area to record observations. That morning, we were looking for and recording sightings of creatures like sea cucumbers, giant clams, parrot fish, groupers, turtles, and sharks. Except for turtles, I saw all of the above on the morning snorkel, including that six-foot white-tipped reef shark. The experience of swimming in these waters was a bit like going to another planet. Credit the colors, the variety of life, and the interplay of shapes and movement. Wallish likens it to staring into the Grand Canyon for the first time.

On the voyage home, sated and relaxed after a hypnotic day on the reef, you can help upload data for the benefit of the Marine Park Authority and then listen as Dawes delivers a marine biology lecture. However, after all that exertion, it didn’t preclude a beer or two.

“These are real people taking photos and recording their observations, and once they’re uploaded, everyone can look at these and get a sense of the reef’s state on a given day,” Wallish said. “People think that the reef’s health is a black-and-white issue, and it isn’t. Water quality, coastal development, and fishing remain concerns, but there is no question that climate change is the single biggest issue that we face.”

Visit Passions of Paradise for more details.