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The Great Barrier Reef has delighted many with its scenic waters and its high diversity of marine life. One of the seven wonders of the world, the Reef is larger than the Great Wall of China and is the only living thing on earth visible from space.

However, not even this big blue miracle is safe from destruction, both natural and man-made.

According to a wide variety of sources, the reef has lost nearly half of its coral covering.

Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS) and the University of Wollongong suggest that the reef  is vanishing due to climate change, predatory starfish and intense cyclones linked to a warming of the ocean, as well as neglect from officials responsible for keeping the natural wonder in top shape.

"This loss of over half of initial cover is of great concern, signifying habitat loss for the tens of thousands of species associated with tropical coral reefs," the study released on Tuesday said.

Though coral and marine animal life has been declining since 2006, officials had no clue that the decline was as rapid and as pervasive as having already wiped out half of the geographic scale.

Reports indicate that Intense tropical cyclones - 34 in total since 1985 - were responsible for much of the damage, accounting for 48 percent, with outbreaks of the coral-feeding crown-of-thorns starfish linked to 42 percent.

Scientists are now pushing for immediate attention and intervention in two areas - cutting both greenhouse gas emissions and the predatory starfish population.

Australian marine and government officials are particularly perturbed by the find, as the reef is Australia's single most popular and profitable tourist attraction, bringing in billions of dollars a year, and they vow to remedy the situation: starting, according to the study, by cleaning up the star fish population.

"The main work - and that's where $200 million has gone into - is working to avoid the impacts of run-off (from) land," says Environment Minister Tony Burke to ioL SciTech.

"But before you even get to [the work that counts] that there is a responsibility that we have in managing it well, and this report is a wake up call to anybody who thought we could just let things go as they were."