With the Australian sun illuminating the crystal clear waters of the Great Barrier Reef in all their glory, UNESCO World Heritage delegates snorkelled for hours surrounded by manta rays, dolphins and reef sharks.
Their mission was to check the health of the world's largest living ecosystem, thousands of multi-coloured coral reefs stretching over 2,000 km off the northeast coast which bring in billions of dollars a year in tourism.
Some coral has been badly damaged and certain animal species, including dugong and large green turtles, are threatened.
UNESCO will announce on Wednesday whether it’s going to place the reef - larger than the United Kingdom, Holland and Switzerland combined - on a list of endangered World Heritage sites. That’s a move the Australian government wants to avoid at all costs.
Such a listing could lead to restrictions on shipping and port expansion that could hit Australia's trade in commodities and energy.
Government ministers have been lobbying hard overseas, while the UNESCO delegates snorkelled in the least damaged area of the reef following a warning by the UN body that the reef risked a blacklisting.
"I have no doubt that they (UNESCO delegates) had a perception that the barrier reef was dead. That it was doomed, it was down, it was in a bad place," Gash said. “And that's not the case at all.”
A pile of processed metal sits near the Barney Point shipping port.
Since then, there has been renewed concern about development, particularly coal mining in the northeastern state of Queensland and shipping.
Greenpeace said 50 percent of the reef's coral cover had been lost in the last 30 years. Earlier this year, UNESCO said the reef's outlook was "poor".
UN delegates spent the bulk of their visit to Queensland hearing detailed scientific rundowns on the reef, the government said.
Locals said the visitors spent a lot of time cavorting with the animals at one of the few remaining unspoiled stretches of the reef.
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