Great Barrier Reef

The coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef is rapidly disappearing due to a host of factors -- all of which are influenced by humans, according to a new study. The report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tracks coral cover over the last 27 years and finds levels have fallen by nearly 50%. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world's most beloved natural attractions because of its remarkable array of sea life. But, according to researchers, a trio of factors has conspired to degrade the reef: tropical cyclones, attacks from the coral predator the crown-of-thorns starfish, and rising water temperatures.

The coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef is rapidly disappearing due to a host of factors -- all of which are influenced by humans, according to a new study. The report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tracks coral cover over the last 27 years and finds levels have fallen by nearly 50%. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world's most beloved natural attractions because of its remarkable array of sea life. But, according to researchers, a trio of factors has conspired to degrade the reef: tropical cyclones, attacks from the coral predator the crown-of-thorns starfish, and rising water temperatures.

Strong currents on Monday battered a stranded coal carrier that slammed into a stretch of the Great Barrier Reef over the weekend, raising fears that more oil from the stricken ship would leak into the pristine ocean habitat. Officials sent a second tugboat to help keep the Chinese-registered Shen Neng 1 from grinding against the reef and releasing more oil and even breaking apart. Meanwhile, workers used a floating boom to contain petrol that has leaked from the vessel. Maritime Safety Queensland officials warned that if the ship broke in two, some 65,000 tons of coal and 300,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil used to run the ship's engines would spill into the marine reserve.

If you're still skeptical that a tan can be dangerous, consider this: Scientists have found that wild fish are getting skin cancer from ultraviolet radiation. Approximately 15% of coral trout inAustralia'sGreat Barrier Reef had cancerous lesions on their scales. In that regard, they resemble Australians who live on land - 2 in 3 people who live down under will be diagnosed with skin cancer before the age of 70, the highest rate in the world. It's probably no coincidence that Australia is under the Earth's biggest hole in the ozone layer.

Reporting from Seoul Kenneth R. Weiss and Los Angeles -- Australians on Sunday scrambled to ensure that a Chinese-owned bulk coal carrier that rammed into the Great Barrier Reef would not break apart and seriously damage the planet's largest coral reef. Peter Garrett, the nation's environment protection minister, told reporters that the government was concerned about the effect an oil spill could have on the environmentally sensitive reef, one of the wonders of the natural world that was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981.

Over the years, retired Australian fishing captain Mike Prior has seen their numbers grow, the large trawlers and freighters cruising recklessly through federally protected waters without proper guidance. On Tuesday, authorities were investigating the shipwreck of one such apparent vessel -- a Chinese-flagged bulk coal carrier that slammed into the Great Barrier Reef, skippered by a captain who, the Queensland maritime authority says, may have ignored the fact that he was outside the shipping lanes without a trained marine pilot because he was trying to save transit time.

Pollution from farming and other human activities threatens Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living organism, according to an Australian government agency. Fertilizer and pesticide use on sugar plantations, as well as land clearing for cattle grazing, has increased chemical and sediment runoffs, the agency said.

From his vantage point hidden among the orchids on a giant tree fern outside my room, an owl surveys the activity in the air around him: ecstatic loop-the-loops by blue mountain parrots, the screeching complaint of magpies, the antics of a trio of cockatoos. Disdainfully he swivels his head. He can't be bothered and neither can I. After a week of slogging it out on the dusty back roads of Cape York Peninsula I've arrived in heaven, Australian-style.

Few documentaries are more visually hypnotic than the ones shot underwater. Blue, rapt and mysterious, they show us a world dreamlike but also vicious: full of predators and victims, with life a constant struggle to eat or avoid being eaten. And the refracted sunlight casts a soft, pearly radiance on it all. "The Great Barrier Reef" (at the Museum of Science and Industry's IMAX Theater), isn't a great underwater documentary, like Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle's early films.

Armies of coral-killing starfish are ravaging the Great Barrier Reef, threatening to turn a wonderland of living color into a white and lifeless landscape. As millions of spiky echinoderms devour the blooms of the sea, alarmed marine scientists are blaming greedy shell collectors and fishermen who unwittingly help the "crown of thorns" starfish by eliminating its predators.

Phileas Fogg went around the world in 80 days. I did it in 23. And I bet I visited more amazing sites than he - India's Taj Mahal, Easter Island, Tibet, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, the African plains, to name a few - all without having to endure the tramp steamers, bone-jarring trains and elephants that Fogg used in 1872. I traveled by private jet. The price of a seat, and all that went with it, was $64,950. The trip was sold by National Geographic Expeditions, which each year offers at least one and sometimes four around-the-world tours by private jet, a leased Boeing 757-200 that is configured with only 77 super-large and dreamily comfortable seats.

1. Australia Australia has had one of its more disastrous summers. Floods, fires and cyclones have affected nearly every state, and recovery will take a long time. Worst hit was the state of Queensland, which suffered through historic floods only to face one of the largest cyclones Australia has seen. The disasters affected the capital, Brisbane, along with holiday locations such as the Sunshine Coast, Townsville and Cairns that are popular departure points for the Great Barrier Reef.

Over the years, retired Australian fishing captain Mike Prior has seen their numbers grow, the large trawlers and freighters cruising recklessly through federally protected waters without proper guidance. On Tuesday, authorities were investigating the shipwreck of one such apparent vessel -- a Chinese-flagged bulk coal carrier that slammed into the Great Barrier Reef, skippered by a captain who, the Queensland maritime authority says, may have ignored the fact that he was outside the shipping lanes without a trained marine pilot because he was trying to save transit time.

Strong currents Monday battered a stranded coal carrier that slammed into a stretch of Australia's Great Barrier Reef over the weekend, raising fears that more oil from the stricken ship would leak into the pristine ocean habitat. Officials sent a second tugboat to help keep the Chinese-registered Shen Neng 1 from grinding against the reef and potentially releasing more oil or even breaking apart. Meanwhile, workers used a floating boom to contain fuel that has leaked from the vessel.

Strong currents on Monday battered a stranded coal carrier that slammed into a stretch of the Great Barrier Reef over the weekend, raising fears that more oil from the stricken ship would leak into the pristine ocean habitat. Officials sent a second tugboat to help keep the Chinese-registered Shen Neng 1 from grinding against the reef and releasing more oil and even breaking apart. Meanwhile, workers used a floating boom to contain petrol that has leaked from the vessel. Maritime Safety Queensland officials warned that if the ship broke in two, some 65,000 tons of coal and 300,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil used to run the ship's engines would spill into the marine reserve.

Reporting from Seoul Kenneth R. Weiss and Los Angeles -- Australians on Sunday scrambled to ensure that a Chinese-owned bulk coal carrier that rammed into the Great Barrier Reef would not break apart and seriously damage the planet's largest coral reef. Peter Garrett, the nation's environment protection minister, told reporters that the government was concerned about the effect an oil spill could have on the environmentally sensitive reef, one of the wonders of the natural world that was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981.

At Australia's Great Barrier Reef, on almost any day during the peak marlin fishing months of October and November, some unhappy fisherman experiences the agony of Ernest Hemingway's Santiago, the broken but undaunted fisherman of "The Old Man and the Sea." It happened recently to Tustin's Ralph Miller. A black marlin that Miller's Australian skipper said might have been the largest game fish ever caught on rod and reel, was attacked and partially devoured by sharks Nov.