New Caledonia Barrier Reef
Lagons de Nouvelle-Calédonie
- UNESCO natural beauty
Interesting facts
- Researchers have counted 146 distinct types of reef structure in New Caledonia, a variety matched only by Fiji.
- The World Heritage property is made up of six separate marine clusters covering more than 15,700 square kilometres of reef and lagoon.
- About 14 species of sea snake live in the lagoons, most of them in the great northern and southern lagoons.
- France first proposed the lagoons for World Heritage status in 2002; inscription came six years later, in July 2008.
- The Amédée lighthouse beside Boulari Pass is a 56-metre cast-iron tower, made in Paris in 1862 and shipped to the island in some 1,200 crates weighing 388 tonnes.
- Before sailing, the Amédée lighthouse was put up in Paris as a demonstration; it was first lit on 15 November 1865, the saint's day of Empress Eugénie.
- Thirteen local management committees, set up around the coast and islands, help monitor the health of the lagoons.
Why it is worth it
Around the main island of New Caledonia, Grande Terre, runs a ring of coral some 1,500 kilometres long: the longest continuous barrier reef on Earth and, by overall size, third only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Mesoamerican reef. In places it stands up to thirty kilometres offshore, and in the northwest it carries on for nearly two hundred kilometres beyond the tip of the island. Inside it lies one of the largest lagoons in the world, about 24,000 square kilometres of shallow water averaging only some twenty-five metres deep, so that from the air the island floats in a band of pale turquoise edged with a white line of surf.
The reef is remarkable for its variety rather than just its scale. Scientists have described well over a hundred distinct reef formations here, from fringing reefs hugging the coast to double barriers, patch reefs and sandy islets, and the counts of life match the larger reefs of the Pacific: more than 2,300 species of fish from nearly 250 families and over 2,000 species of molluscs. The lagoon shelters one of the largest dugong populations anywhere, green turtles come ashore to nest on its cays, humpback whales visit its waters, and sharks gather in the passes where the tide pours in and out of the lagoon.
In 2008 UNESCO inscribed the reefs and lagoons as "The Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems". The greatest pressure on them comes from the land: New Caledonia is one of the world's great nickel producers, and silt washed down from mined hillsides can smother coral close to shore. Out on the barrier itself the water is clear enough to read the reef from a boat, and the classic first view is from the islet of Amédée off Nouméa, where a tall white lighthouse stands beside the Boulari Pass, one of the gaps through which ships enter the lagoon.
Getting there
The reef encircles Grande Terre, so the best base is the capital, Nouméa, on the southwest coast. International flights land at La Tontouta International Airport (NOU), about 50 km northwest of Nouméa; on the west coast further north, Koné Airport (KNQ) serves domestic flights about 76 km from the nearest stretch of reef. From Nouméa, boats from Port Moselle and the beach districts reach Amédée lighthouse in around forty minutes, and dive and snorkel trips run out to the passes and islets of the lagoon.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The New Caledonian barrier reef is a barrier reef located in New Caledonia in the South Pacific, being the longest continuous barrier reef in the world and the third largest after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.
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