{"id":700,"date":"2021-05-11T04:52:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T04:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/?p=700"},"modified":"2021-05-11T04:52:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T04:52:43","slug":"diving-the-great-barrier-reef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/diving-the-great-barrier-reef\/","title":{"rendered":"Diving the Great Barrier Reef!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During 2019 I had the privilege of experiencing some amazing diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I\u00a0spent six months diving at a few different outer reef locations, just off the coast of North\u00a0Queensland. While diving there I saw a huge variety of underwater animals including several species\u00a0of fish, turtles and even whales! The abundance of life on the Great Barrier is extraordinary, though\u00a0the sheer size of the reef is incredible in itself.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-704\" src=\"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Picture1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/> <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-703\" src=\"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Picture2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Great Barrier reef is the largest coral reef system on Earth. It is not actually one single reef, but\u00a0rather a collective formation of 2900 individual reefs. During my time in Australia I only dove on four\u00a0of those individual reefs. To give you an idea of scale, the entirety of the Great Barrier covers an area\u00a0of approximately 344,400 square kilometres. Spanning along the Queensland coastline for 2,300\u00a0kilometres.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Inhabiting the reef are more than 1,500 species of\u00a0fish. Along with 30 recorded species of cetaceans,\u00a0there are 17 species of sea snake and 6 species of\u00a0sea turtle. Among the many other organisms, the\u00a0reef is also home to many of the oceans endangered\u00a0species.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-701\" src=\"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Picture4-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Due to my position as a diving instructor, I was able\u00a0to stay in Australia and do hundreds of dives on the Great Barrier. My PADI training at Dive HQ\u00a0Christchurch helped me to achieve such an epic opportunity. The Diploma in Professional Scuba\u00a0Instruction provided me with the essential training I need to land a job with a predominant diving\u00a0company.<\/p>\n<p>I had such an amazing time diving on the Great Barrier Reef, I implore others to go experience it. But\u00a0even though there is still a diverse range of life there, a lot of it is at risk. A number of factors such as\u00a0climate change, pollution and over fishing are endangering the health of the reef. It is important to\u00a0be cautious as possible when diving. With the right training and help of conservation efforts like\u00a0project AWARE, we can help protect not only the Great Barrier but the whole Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Awan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During 2019 I had the privilege of experiencing some amazing diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I\u00a0spent six months diving at a few different outer reef locations, just off the coast of North\u00a0Queensland. While diving there I saw a huge variety of underwater animals including several species\u00a0of fish, turtles and even whales! The abundance of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":706,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}