Great Barrier Reef to be named as one of the Natural Wonders – Well Maybe.

A four-year long competition to name the seven wonders of the natural world winners will be announced at 11.11am on Friday, the 11th day of the 11th month in 2011…Well its 11.11pm on Friday night, the 11th day of the 11th month in 2011 Down here and we’re still waiting for the Northern Hemisphere to get out of bed! From 220 countries 440 images of natural wonders were submitted; these were shortlisted by a panel led by Prof Federico Zaragoza, the former head of Unesco to 10 places and they are The Amazon, Table Mountain, Galapagos Islands, Grand Canyon, Mount Vesuvius, The Dead Sea , Sundarbans, Maldives, Yusha and obviously our favourite the Great Barrier Reef. The Aussies are understandably proud of the largest coral reef on the planet. It can be seen from space and is supposedly the world's biggest single structure made from living organisms.

A Few Facts

It's 1615 miles across, in the Coral Sea just off the coast of Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef is home to an immense 2900 smaller reefs and thousands of species of fish, corals and sponges. The reef runs almost parallel to the Queensland coast, starting on a level with Cape York and ending on a level with the town of Bundaberg. This is not the first time the Reef has features in a world top 7, in 1989 CEDAM brought together a panel of marine scientists, including Dr. Eugenie Clark, to pick underwater areas which they considered to be worthy of protection. The results were announced at The National Aquarium in Washington DC by actor Lloyd Bridges, star of TV's Sea Hunt.

Those Seven Wonders are:

• Palau
• Belize Barrier Reef
• Great Barrier Reef
• Deep-Sea Vents
• Galápagos Islands
• Lake Baikal
• Northern Red Sea

The Great Barrier Reef also features in our Australia's top 10 dive sites. by Brent Narbey