Shipping Accidents
For being such a popular destination, the Great Barrier Reef sees a huge amount of ocean traffic pass through its waters every year. Not only fishing boats and tourism cruises are trying to get the best of the Great Barrier Reef but services and goods are exported and imported by large bulk carriers. The Great Barrier Reef routes are not easy but reef pilots consider it safer than outside the reef in the event of mechanical failure. On record there have been 1,600 known shipwrecks in the Great Barrier Reef due to shipping collisions and groundings causing severe damage to the ecosystem. This is a threat due to continuous damage to the Reef from shipwrecks and spills that take decades to recover.