Nearly all of the visitation to the area, for diving, fishing and holiday resorts, is in the bottom two thirds, from Port Douglas and Cairns, south to the Whitsunday Islands. Yet the northern third of the area, with some of the most beautiful reef, uninhabited islands and great fishing, is visited by only a few vessels, most of which specialise in either SCUBA diving or fishing.

That is because very few people live up here and there is very little tourism related infrastructure. Most travellers to the Great Barrier Reef are here for a single specialised experience...diving or fishing. Not usually both. Most of the day trippers have never even snorkelled.

Seeing the Great Barrier Reef, any of it, is a remarkable experience. Seeing the remote marine wilderness of the far northern Great Barrier Reef, still in much the same condition as when Captain James Cook visited over two hundred years ago, is for most a 'once-in-a-lifetime' experience.