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The Belize Barrier Reef is a series of coral reefs straddling the coast of Belize, roughly offshore in the north and in the south within the country limits. The Belize Barrier Reef is a long section of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which is continuous from Cancún on the north-eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula through the Riviera Maya and up to Honduras, making it the second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It is Belize's top tourist destination, popular for scuba diving and snorkeling and attracting almost half of its 260,000 visitors. It is also vital to the country's fishing industry.〔Harrabin, Roger. (2006-06-12) (Reef at forefront of CO2 battle ). BBC News. Retrieved on 2011-10-21.〕 Charles Darwin described it as "the most remarkable reef in the West Indies" in 1842. In addition to its barrier reef, it also boasts three distinct Caribbean atolls: Turneffe Atoll, Glover's Reef and Lighthouse Reef. Lighthouse Reef is the most easterly diving area in Belize, it is home to the Great Blue Hole, made famous by Jacques Cousteau in 1970; Turneffe Atoll lies directly to the east of Belize City and is the nearest of the atolls to the capital. These different reefs provide diverse scuba diving opportunities that include walls, pinnacles and reef flats that are located throughout an enormous area of sea.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scuba Diving in Belize: The Blue Hole, Ambergris and Turneffe Atoll )〕 ==Species== The Belize Barrier Reef is home to a large diversity of plants and animals, and is one of the most diverse ecosystems of the world: *70 hard coral species *36 soft coral species *500 species of fish *hundreds of invertebrate species With 90% of the reef still needing to be researched, it is estimated that only 10% of all species have been discovered.〔(Belize Barrier Reef Case Study ). Westminster.edu. Retrieved on 2011-10-21.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Belize Barrier Reef」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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