Reef Society

A coral reef is evolution's greatest masterpiece. Each living animal or plant of this Reef Society we see in our brief moments underwater, is the perfect, successful result of nature's millions of years of genetic experiments. The failures are long buried as fossil remnants in rocks along with their not-so-successful genes.

Early naturalists, poets and painters marvelled at the ocean's pristine and wild beauty and the creatures within it. From Byron and Thoreau, to Saville-Kent, Dakin and our own Great Barrier Reef Matriarch Isobel Bennett, early explorers were confined "twixt tide and tide's turning". Today marine scientists go deeper, longer and with technical gear beyond the comprehension of those previous generations of land-bound water lovers.

Our knowledge of the ocean is now exponentially greater as well - but to understand the vast specialised knowledge this new breed of marine scientists have discovered is beyond any individual. But it is as individuals that we think, dream and plan for the future of our planet - our Blue Planet.

I hope that when you explore and discover our oceans and its inhabitants.... wandering a beach or underwater, you might marvel that every shell, each grain of sand has a story to tell. As individuals, lets make sure the children of the future will always be able to delight in their own underwater discoveries.