Diving Guide > Australia > Coral Sea Reefs - Queensland , Australia Scuba Diving Guide

East of Great Barrier Reef is the Coral Sea which contains hundreds of separate reefs, atolls, cays and seamounts. Many of these rise thousands of feet from the ocean floor to just beneath the sea surface. Together, these reef systems span an area of more than 1 million square kilometers.

Coral Sea diving is rather different from diving in Great Barrier Reef. The reefs in Coral Sea does not have large corals growth. But because it is just next to the Pacific Ocean, it attracts a wide variety of fish in large number. Every dive will have sightings of sharks and pelagics actions. Compare to Great Barrier Reef, the water visibility is exceptional. Average visibility is in excess of 40m. Topography of Coral Sea Reefs includes spectacular walls, steep drop-offs, lone seamounts and shallow coral gardens with gentle gradients.

Like a faithful companion, each section of Great Barrier Reef is accompanied by some reef systems from the Coral Sea. This and the fact that diving in Coral Sea offers a different experience to those in Great Barrier Reef, operators of liveaboard trips like to include both areas in their itineraries.

We divide our coverage of Coral Sea Reefs into four pages corresponding to the four sections of Great Barrier Reef. To know more details of Great Barrier Reef, please visit our Great Barrier Reef scuba diving guide. The four pages on Coral Sea Reefs are Osprey Reef, Holmes Reefs, Flinders Reef and Southern Coral Sea Reefs.