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Belize barrier reef is world's second largest barrier reef and the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere nearly 260km long is also known as a diver's paradise. It is just less than a mile from the Iguana Reef Inn. The coastal area of Belize is an outstanding natural system consisting of the barrier reef, offshore atolls, several hundred sand cays, mangrove forests, coastal lagoons and estuaries significant habitat for threatened species, including marine turtles, manatees and the American marine crocodile.
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Belize's reef is like an enchanted wonderland. The wondrous, ever-changing world of underwater Belize is simply inexplicable in words. The torpid surroundings,the extraordinary colourful nature of its inhabitants: the living corals, the crabs, shrimp and lobster, the conch in its various shells just mesmerizes us. Such landscape inspires an artist's imagination. One of the richest ecosystems on the planet, |
Belize's reef is characterized by scores of beautiful islands, sand bores, pristine reefs, and various underwater structures. Underwater structures of Belize reef are home to hundreds of animal and plant species, including 220 types of fish and untold hundreds of invertebrates (notably molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms and corals) predominate, but algae are also plentiful. More species of fish are found on reefs than anywhere else in the sea, ranging from large sharks to tiny gobies.
These have startlingly rich, colourful and unusual communities of sponges, corals, and other reef species encrusting the mangrove roots and lagoon sides; in one lagoon, over 40 species of seaquirts (a small, primitive, chordate) have been found So rare and exquisite is this habitat that the United Nations has proposed preservation of the reef as a World Heritage Site, arguing that its degradation or disappearance would result in a harmful penury of the heritage of all nations.
From boating to fishing to tourism, many livelihoods-and lives-in coastal Belize are tethered to its reef system.
Know more about Belize:
Allwondersoftheworld.comintroduces us to another Coral Reef of the Carribean Sea which boosts of its biodive | |
