Great Barrier Reef's annual coral spawn called "greatest sex show on earth"
It’s the largest living organism on the planet – and when it spawns, it puts on quite a show.
Underwater cameras captured the action as the Great Barrier Reef got busy reproducing over the weekend.
The massive, marathon spawning session ended Sunday with millions of eggs and sperm released into the waters off Queensland, Australia.
The coral is capable of reproducing just few days each year under the best of circumstances. Near-perfect conditions occurred over the weekend, when ocean temperatures hit 26 degrees Celsius (78.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and the moon was full, reducing tidal flow and allowing the eggs to float away in calmer waters.
"It is literally the greatest sex show on earth," said underwater cinematographer Richard Fitzpatrick, who went out a nighttime dive to watch it unfold.
"We got to see the coral spawning, which is the annual event where all the eggs and sperm are released up into the water," he said. "It's an amazing sight. It's like an underwater snow storm, but backwards, going up. It's really weird. It's awesome."
Sheree Marris, a marine scientist, described it in even more colorful terms. "It's like this synchronized orgasm,” she said. "Like fairy dust going up in the water. It was amazing. I feel incredibly lucky to actually see (it)."
The Great Barrier Reef stretches for more than 1400 miles along the northeastern coast of Australia and covers a territory half the size of Texas. Its ecosystem is home to a spectacular array of sea creatures, ranging from mollusks to marine turtles to over 1600 varieties of fish, rays, sharks and whales.