Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is appropriately described by superlatives. It's the largest organic structure ever created on the planet. At 1250 miles long, it's easily viewed from outer space, and its broad frontiers encompass one of the world’s most diverse marine ecosystems. Roughly 400 species of coral provide habitat for over 1500 varieties of fish and several thousand invertebrate species. It's also the largest of 144 World Heritage Sites, and as one of the oldest and most refined marine parks, has benefited from over twenty years of protection and management.
The reef is as diverse as it is grand and any attempt to summarise its vast diversity and wealth wouldn’t do it justice. Because of its distance from shore, it is difficult, but not impossible for independent travellers to access the Great Barrier Reef.
Snorkelers can visit the reef in several ways:
1) There are numerous liveaboards, many of which hail out of Cairns and Port Douglas, but most of these cater to divers rather than snorkelers.
2) Many casual visitors to the Great Barrier Reef elect to experience a day or two of snorkeling on the large day boats that also operate out of Cairns and Port Douglas. Although this option does get you technically into Great Barrier Reef water, and although the transit boats are fast, you are generally travelling with large groups of people and the actual time in the water is fairly limited.

3) Perhaps a more dedicated and rewarding option is to spend a few days at the exclusive (very expensive) Lizard Island Resort, the rather upscale resort on Heron Island, or the moderately-positioned resort on Lady Elliot Island. More adventurous snorkelers can also find a few campsites on Lizard Island that do not offer water, food and power, and are priced accordingly. Each of these locations offer shore snorkeling, which includes sandy beach terrain, shallow patch reef with robust stands of various branching and table corals that harbour many fish and invertebrates. These start just a few inches beneath the surface of the water. There is also an option, which I would recommend, to take boats provided daily by resorts if you wish to explore further afield.