The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system in the world and is even visible from space. It is a remarkable and unique part of the ocean that can only be discovered by snorkeling and scuba diving into its ecosystem. The reef follows the coast of the state of Queensland with some parts of the reef being very close to the coast itself. Doing a Great Barrier Reef day trip from Cairns is a great way to initially explore this amazing ecosystem.
Discovering the Reef Sustainably
The reef experiences a few different impacts due to human interaction and climate change. The reefs nearest to the shore are the places that are the most visited by tourists and have been impacted by these intense repeated visits. These areas are not the best to visit when doing a Great Barrier Reef day trip from Cairns. Over time, there is evidence that human interaction with the reefs causes them damage. This happens from boats running into the reef (the reef can be very close to the surface of the water, especially during lower tide), waste and runoff from these boats, and habitat disturbance by people touching and impacting the reef itself.
In addition to damaging the reef by physically visiting this ecosystem, climate change has had severe impacts on the lifecycle of the corals and reef itself. In a process called bleaching, the corals, which are the structure, habitat, nursery, and food for so many different sea creatures, lose their exterior tissue revealing their skeleton, hence the white appearance of the coral. While they are not dead when they are bleached, they are vulnerable to starvation.
In addition, the bleaching means that it is no longer inhabitable by other sea life and has an impact on the entire ocean ecosystem by affecting food sources throughout the food chain. This is a big deal because ¼ of marine life lives in coral reefs. The bleaching is particularly apparent during the summer months (January – March) in the Great Barrier Reef. If you are doing a Great Barrier Reef day trip from Cairns during this time period, you may see less vibrancy in the water than expected. Fortunately, coral reefs can recover from bleaching today. However, the more that bleaching happens and the longer that it lasts, the slimmer the chances are for recovery as time goes on.
How You Can Sustainably Explore the Great Barrier Reef
- Visit the outer reef rather than the inner reef. This area is visited less by people due to its distance from land and experiences less impact directly from humans.
- If you have the time, try to do a multi day dive tour of different parts of the reef. These tours are more economical and sustainable than day tours that continuously return to Cairns or Port Douglas. These are great ways to go scuba diving and if you want to get your scuba diving open water license, the liveaboard options are a great way to get that training in some of the best scuba diving water in the world.
- Wear reef-safe sunscreen. We know that it is a weird texture but it will truly help protect the oceans from pollutants
- The best thing you can do is consider your impact on the environment every day, no matter where you are in the world. Recycle as much as possible, think about ways you can lower your energy consumption, and consider small daily actions that can decrease your footprint on this earth.
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Options for Great Barrier Reef Day Trips from Cairns
While multi-day liveaboard tours are the most ecologically friendly tour options, we understand that many people may not have three days available to them to visit the Great Barrier Reef, or the interest in snorkeling. If this is the case for you, then a Great Barrier Reef day trip from Cairns is the best option to experience the beauty of the reef.
What to Look for When Choosing a Great Barrier Reef Day Trip from Cairns
Choosing a tour can be quite overwhelming given the sheer number of tour groups that operate out of Cairns and Port Douglas. Here are a few things to consider when choosing a tour:
- Tour size: Tours can range from 20 people to 150+ people on a boat. The size of the tour can impact where the boat can go and the level of personalization of your experience with the guides.
- Style of boat: The types of boat that sail around the Great Barrier Reef are quite varied, ranging from catamaran, luxury, and sail boats. If you risk getting seasick, consider reserving a catamaran for your adventure since they tend to be most stable.
- Age of passengers: Some boats are family friendly while others are adult-only. Look into the types of passengers who can be on any particular boat if this aspect matters to you.
- Activities available: Some companies and larger boats have different activities that you can do in addition to snorkeling and scuba diving so you can see the reef in a unique way. These can include glass-bottom boat tours (great if you do not want to swim in the ocean), helicopter tours, submarines, etc. Larger reef tour groups are the ones that have access to these different activities, and they can help add variety to your trip, are incredibly family friendly, and allow even more people to experience the beauty of the reef.
- Reef location: Different companies have access to different parts of the reef. Some visit the inner reef while others focus on locations in the outer reef. While the waters may be rougher in the outer reef because they aren’t protected by the reef structure as much, the animal life in this area is superior to that in the inner reef. The outer reef is also much more expansive, meaning that boats are more spread out and have less of an ecological impact on the reef itself. Some boats have roaming licenses and can independently choose the locations they visit throughout the reef based on water conditions and knowledge of where the best reef viewing might be that day. Finally, some companies have their own exclusive locations within the reef. These can be platforms, islands, or just reef locations that are owned and operated by these specific tour companies. Some of these platforms and islands provide different offerings to guests (such as the glass bottom boats and submarines) but they will be a larger group tour experience. Some tour companies also participate in the research and sustainability of the reef and use their exclusive locations within the reef as gardens to help grow coral to rehabilitate damaged parts of the reef.
What does a Great Barrier Reef Day Trip from Cairns Entail
Tours really depend on the organization that you are going with. Some offer to pick you up from your hotel while others require you to arrive at the docks at a certain time. The tours that do not go to exclusive islands or platforms provide two stops for snorkeling while those that have the islands and platforms have just one stop, allowing you to maximize your time in that location to explore in different ways. Typically, a lunch buffet is included in the tour. Finally, some tours include a conversation around the ecology and sustainability of the Great Barrier Reef, which is beneficial in understanding what you can do to ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy this beauty. Here is one option for an outer reef Great Barrier Reef day trip from Cairns.
Renting Waterproof Gear for Your Great Barrier Reef Day Trip from Cairns
Because the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef is truly under the water, you may want to have some waterproof cameras to capture this experience on your Great Barrier Reef day trip from Cairns. Some of the boat tours offer to rent you the gear while on the boat. (You may need to provide a memory card or purchase one on the boat as well.) If your tour does not offer the gear rental, you can also rent GoPros or cameras from different tech stores in Cairns.
When swimming and taking photos underwater, you will find that the colors will diminish as you dive deeper in the water and turn into different shades of blue. That’s because the blue color wave can penetrate the water deeper than the others, making things look less colorful than the photos that you may have seen online. Cameras often color correct images to add the appropriate amount of yellow and red back into the images.
These images show the before and after of a quick color touch-up of the reef that was developed in Lightroom after-the-fact.
