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UPSC Prelims 2007 · Environment · Species Watch
The Largest coral reef in the world is found near the coast of which one of the following countries?
- (a) Australia
- (b) Cuba
- (c) Ghana
- (d) Philippines
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: (a) Australia
The Great Barrier Reef, off Queensland, Australia, is the largest coral reef system.
The idea
Reef-building corals need warm, shallow, clear, salty water. The sea off north-east Australia has these conditions along a very long, shallow continental shelf, and the result is the Great Barrier Reef, about 2,300 km long.
Fringing reef: joined to the shore → Barrier reef: parallel to the shore, with a lagoon between → Atoll: a ring of reef around a lagoon
Why the others are wrong
(d) The Philippines is in the Coral Triangle — richest in coral species, but not the largest reef.
The trap
The Coral Triangle is the richest, not the largest.
Also know
The Great Barrier Reef is a World Heritage Site and has suffered repeated mass bleaching as the sea warms. The area with the most coral species is the Coral Triangle: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.
🔒 Largest reef = Great Barrier Reef (Australia). Richest coral area = Coral Triangle.