Diving at the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef off the northern coast of Australia is the world’s largest coral reef system. An underwater dream stretching along the Queensland coast like nature’s own fairy tale.

I board the boat in Cairns with a ragtag bunch of divers. Sun-scorched Brits, polite Japanese and a dive master who looked like he’d seen the bottom of every ocean worth its salt. As we motored out, civilization peeled away like cheap wallpaper. The sea was calm, deceptively so, like a resting dragon.

Descending at the Great Barrier Reef.

Our first stop is at the Thetford Reef. It is a great relief to dive in hot water, compared to the freezing temperatures back home in the Gothenburg archipelago. We dropped into the depths, swallowed by the reef’s cathedral of color.

Into the blue.

The reef is a living, breathing pulsing organism. A metropolis of coral, fish and god knows what else. It’s surreal and silent, like being inside a Salvador Dalí painting, but wetter and with more oxygen tanks. Down there, I’m just another thing floating through the currents, a guest in someone else’s universe.

Finding Nemo.

Upon returning to Cairns in the afternoon, it’s time for a proper Victoria Bitter at Woolshed. I start humming on the old song Captain Nemo by Swedish band Dive, thinking about the day.

It really is a privilege to dive at the Great Barrier Reef. While I had a great time, I was also taken aback by how the fish population and the corals had diminished. We’re killing it, of course. Bleaching, overfishing, warming seas, pick your poison.

It’s very important to be careful and respectful of the fragile marine life. I recently read a grim prediction that about 80 percent of the Great Barrier Reef will be destroyed in year 2030, due to the climate change.

But for now, it’s still there. Still alive. Still worth every decompression stop. Let’s take care of it.