''Barney's Barrier Reef'' is a British documentary program launched by the

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

in 2009. It was presented by

Barney Harwood Barnaby John Harwood (born 7 November 1979) is a British actor and television presenter. He is known for his work with CBBC beginning in 2002. Career Television For CBBC, Harwood presented '' Prank Patrol'' and was a voice-over commentator for ...

and

Gemma Hunt Gemma Hunt (born 1 April 1982) is a retired British presenter best known for presenting the children's competition show ''Swashbuckle (TV series), Swashbuckle'', having starred in all 8 seasons from 2013 to 2022. She also presented the CBBC TV ...

and featured 20 episodes. The program, filmed in north

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, shows the links between animals from the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

. It involves at least 10 to 12 animals each episode. Barney used an animal as a 'little cheat' as described by Gemma, because it was

Human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s. Barney's Barrier Reef mostly involves

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

since the Great Barrier Reef is in an

ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

. Land animals are hardly used in this series, unlike the companion series Barney's Latin America, although some fish, like the blind sea shrimp, are featured.

Critical reception

Kerrie Murphy of ''The Weekend Australian'' called the series "overdone" but enjoyable overall.

References

British children's television series {{UK-kids-tv-prog-stub