Shark Bay (
Malgana
The Malgana are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia.
Language
Malgana belongs to the Kartu language family. It died out by the mid-20th century, but a salvage grammar of the language, based on old recordings and records, was ...
: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
in the
Gascoyne
The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gasc ...
region of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. The
[http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay ] area is located approximately north of
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's official listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage Site reads:
:
History
The record of
Australian Aboriginal
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait I ...
occupation of Shark Bay extends to years
BP. At that time most of the area was dry land, rising sea levels flooding Shark Bay between BP and BP. A considerable number of aboriginal
midden sites have been found, especially on Peron Peninsula and Dirk Hartog Island which provide evidence of some of the foods gathered from the waters and nearby land areas.
An expedition led by
Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog (; baptised 30 October 1580 – buried 11 October 1621) was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artefact to record his ...
happened upon the area in 1616, becoming the second group of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
ans known to have visited Australia. (The crew of the ''
Duyfken
''Duyfken'' (; Little Dove), also in the form ''Duifje'' or spelled ''Duifken'' or ''Duijfken'', was a small ship built in the Dutch Republic. She was a fast, lightly armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bri ...
'', under
Willem Janszoon
Willem Janszoon (; ), sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz., was a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. Janszoon served in the Dutch East Indies in the periods 16031611 and 16121616, including as governor of Fort Henricus on the island of S ...
, had visited
Cape York in 1606). The area was given the name Shark Bay by the English explorer
William Dampier
William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnav ...
, on 7 August 1699. Shark Bay was also visited by
Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn in 1772,
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific.
Biography
Early career
Born a comm ...
in 1801 to 1803 and
Louis de Freycinet
Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (7 August 1779 – 18 August 1841) was a French Navy officer. He circumnavigated the earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia.
Biography
He was born at ...
in 1818.
Europeans, mostly pastoralists, settled in Shark Bay during the 1860s to 1870s.
Pearling developed rapidly from 1870.
Commercial whaling was conducted in the bay in the first half of the 20th century by Norwegian owned factory ships and their catcher vessels. In the late 1930s up to 1,000 humpback whales were taken per season.
The heritagelisted area had a population of fewer than people as at the
2011 census and a coastline of over . The half-dozen small communities making up this population occupy less than 1% of the total area.
Shark Bay World Heritage site
The World Heritage status of the region was created and negotiated in 1991, the first such site in Western Australia.
The site was
gazetted
A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.
In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...
on the
Australian National Heritage List
The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...
on 21 May 2007
under the .
Protected areas
Declared as a World Heritage Site in 1991, the site covers an area of , of which about 70 per cent are marine waters. It includes many protected areas and conservation reserves, including
Shark Bay Marine Park,
Francois Peron National Park
Francois Peron National Park is a national park on the Peron Peninsula in Western Australia, 726 km north of Perth, and located within the boundary of the Shark Bay World Heritage area. The nearest towns to the park are Denham, which is f ...
,
Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve
The Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is a protected marine nature reserve located in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Shark Bay in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The nature reserve boasts the most diverse and abundant examples ...
,
Zuytdorp Nature Reserve and numerous protected islands.
Denham and
Useless Loop both fall within the boundary of the site, yet are specifically excluded from it.
Landforms
The bay itself covers an area of , with an average depth of .
It is divided by shallow banks and has many peninsulas and islands. The coastline is over long. There are about of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
cliffs overlooking the bay.
One spectacular segment of cliffs is known as the
Zuytdorp Cliffs
The Zuytdorp Cliffs extend for about along a rugged, spectacular and little visited segment of the Western Australian Indian Ocean coast. The cliffs extend from just south of the mouth of the Murchison River at Kalbarri, to Pepper Point sou ...
. The bay is located in the transition zone between three major climatic regions and between two major
botanical
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
provinces.
Peron Peninsula
Peron Peninsula is a long narrow peninsula located in the Shark Bay World Heritage site in Western Australia, at about 25°51' S longitude and 113°30' E latitude. It is some long, running north-northwesterly, located east of Henri Freycin ...
divides the bay and is the home of its largest settlements as well as a
National Park at the northern end.
Dirk Hartog Island
A dirk is a long bladed thrusting dagger.Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), ''Dagger'', The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. VII, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (1910), p. 729 Historically, it gained its name from the Highland Dirk (Scot ...
is of historical significance due to landings upon it by early explorers. In 1616, Dirk Hartog landed at Inscription Point on the north end of the island and marked his discovery with a
pewter plate, inscribed with the date and nailed to a post. This plate was then replaced by Willem de Vlamingh and returned to the Netherlands. It is now kept in the
Rijksmuseum. There is a replica in the Shark Bay Discovery Centre in Denham.
Bernier Bernier is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Chantal Bernier, Canadian lawyer
* Charles A. Bernier (1890–1963), American college sports coach
* David Bernier or Kike Bernier, Puerto Rican fencer
* Étienne-Alexandre B ...
and
Dorre islands in the north-west corner of the heritage area are among the last-remaining habitats of two varieties of Australian mammals,
hare-wallabies, threatened with extinction. They are used, with numerous other smaller islands throughout the marine park, to release threatened species that are being bred at Project Eden in François Peron National Park. These islands are free of feral non-native animals which might predate the threatened species, and so provide a safe haven of pristine environment on which to restore species that are threatened on the mainland.
The
Australian Wildlife Conservancy is the guardian of
Faure Island
Faure Island is a 58 km2 island pastoral lease and nature reserve, east of the Francois Peron National Park on the Peron Peninsula, in Shark Bay, Western Australia. It lies in line with the Monkey Mia resort to the west, and the Wooram ...
, off
Monkey Mia
Monkey Mia is a popular tourist destination located about 900 km north of Perth, Western Australia. The reserve is 25 km northeast of the town of Denham in the Shark Bay Marine Park and World Heritage Site.
The main attraction are t ...
. Seasonally,
sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhe ...
s come here to nest and are the subject of studies conducted in conjunction with the
Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) on this sheltered island.
Fauna
Shark Bay is an area of major zoological importance. It is home to about 10,000
dugong
The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest m ...
s ('sea cows'), around 12.5% of the world's population,
and there are many
Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin
The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops aduncus'') is a species of bottlenose dolphin. This dolphin grows to long, and weighs up to . It lives in the waters around India, northern Australia, South China, the Red Sea, and the eastern ...
s, particularly at Monkey Mia. The dolphins here have been particularly friendly since the 1960s.
The area supports 26
threatened
Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...
Australian
mammal species, over 230 species of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
, and nearly 150 species of
reptile. It is an important breeding and nursery ground for
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
,
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...
s, and
coelenterate
Radiata or Radiates is a historical taxonomic rank that was used to classify animals with radially symmetric body plans. The term Radiata is no longer accepted, as it united several different groupings of animals that do not form a monophylet ...
s. There are over 323 fish species, many of them
shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...
s and
rays
Ray may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin
Science and mathematics
* Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point
* Ray (gra ...
.
Some bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay exhibit one of the few known cases of
tool use in marine mammals (along with
sea otters): they protect their nose with a
sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...
while foraging for food in the sandy sea bottom.
Humpback and
southern right whales use the waters of the bay as migratory staging post
while other species such as
Bryde's whale come into the bay less frequently but to feed or rest. The threatened
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...
and
loggerhead sea turtle
The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...
s nest on the bay's sandy beaches. The largest fish in the world, the
whale shark
The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of .McClain CR, Balk MA, Benfield MC, Branch TA, Chen C, Cosgrove J, ...
, gathers in the bay during the April and May full moons.
Flora
Shark Bay has the largest known area of
seagrass
Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the or ...
, with
seagrass meadow
A seagrass meadow or seagrass bed is an underwater ecosystem formed by seagrasses. Seagrasses are marine (saltwater) plants found in shallow coastal waters and in the brackish waters of estuaries. Seagrasses are flowering plants with stems and ...
s covering over of the bay.
It includes the
Wooramel Seagrass Bank, the largest seagrass bank in the world
and contains a ''Posidonia australis''
meadow formed by a single plant, the largest in the world.
Shark Bay also contains the largest number of seagrass species ever recorded in one place; twelve species have been found, with up to nine occurring together in some places. The seagrasses are a vital part of the complex environment of the bay. Over thousands of years, sediment and shell fragments have accumulated in the seagrasses to form vast expanses of seagrass beds. This has raised the sea floor, making the bay shallower. Seagrasses are the basis of the food chain in Shark Bay, providing home and shelter to various marine species and attracting the dugong population.
In Shark Bay's hot, dry climate, evaporation greatly exceeds the annual precipitation rate. Thus, the seawater in the shallow bays becomes very salt-concentrated, or 'hypersaline'. Seagrasses also restrict the tidal flow of waters through the bay area, preventing the ocean tides from diluting the sea water. The water of the bay is 1.5 to 2 times more salty than the surrounding ocean waters.
Stromatolites
Based on growth rate it is believed that about 1,000 years ago cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) began building up
stromatolite
Stromatolites () or stromatoliths () are layered sedimentary formations ( microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria). T ...
s in
Hamelin Pool
The Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is a protected marine nature reserve located in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Shark Bay in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The nature reserve boasts the most diverse and abundant examples ...
at the
Hamelin Station Reserve
Hamelin ( ; german: Hameln ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Hi ...
in the southern part of the bay. These structures are modern equivalents of the earliest signs of life on Earth, with fossilized stromatolites being found dating from 3.5 billion years ago at
North Pole near Marble Bar, in Western Australia, and are considered the longest continuing biological lineage.
They were first identified in 1956 at Hamelin Pool as a living species, before that only being known in the fossil record. Hamelin Pool contains the most diverse and abundant examples of living stromatolite forms in the world. Other occurrences are found at
Lake Clifton near
Mandurah
Mandurah () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 107,641 as of the 2021 census.
Mandurah's ...
and
Lake Thetis near
Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...
.
It is hypothesized that some stromatolites contain a new form of
chlorophyll,
chlorophyll f.
Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre
Facilities around the World Heritage area, provided by the
Shire of Shark Bay
The Shire of Shark Bay is a local government area of Western Australia in the Gascoyne region. It has an area of 25,423 km2 and a population of about 950. It is made up of two peninsulas, located at the westernmost point of Australia. ...
and the
WA Department of Environment and Conservation, include the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre in Denham which provides interactive displays and comprehensive information about the features of the region.
Access
Access to Shark Bay is by air via
Shark Bay Airport
Monkey Mia Airport is an airport located on the Peron Peninsula within the Shark Bay World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region serving Monkey Mia, a resort in Western Australia, and the nearby town of Denham.
Airlines and destinations
S ...
, and by the World Heritage Drive, a 150 km link road between
Denham and the
Overlander Roadhouse
__NOTOC__
The Overlander Roadhouse is a petrol service station in Western Australia, between Geraldton and Carnarvon on the North West Coastal Highway.
Its remoteness has led to the area around it being known as ''Overlander'', though there ...
on the
North West Coastal Highway
North West Coastal Highway is a generally north-south Western Australian highway which links the coastal city of Geraldton with the town of Port Hedland. The road, constructed as a sealed two-lane single carriageway, travels through remote and ...
.
Specific reserved areas
National parks and reserves in the World Heritage Area
*
Bernier Island
Bernier Island is one of three islands that comprise the ''Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve'' in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia.
The island and the neighbouring Dorre Island were locations for a lock hospital in ...
*
Dorre Island
Dorre Island is one of three islands that make up the ''Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve'' in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia. The island was named after Peter Dorre, the pilot of a Dutch vessel, the ''Eendracht'', ...
*
Charlie Island
*
Francois Peron National Park
Francois Peron National Park is a national park on the Peron Peninsula in Western Australia, 726 km north of Perth, and located within the boundary of the Shark Bay World Heritage area. The nearest towns to the park are Denham, which is f ...
* Friday Island
*
Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve
The Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is a protected marine nature reserve located in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Shark Bay in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The nature reserve boasts the most diverse and abundant examples ...
*
Hamelin Pool/East Faure Island High-Low Water Mark
*
Koks Island
*
Monkey Mia
Monkey Mia is a popular tourist destination located about 900 km north of Perth, Western Australia. The reserve is 25 km northeast of the town of Denham in the Shark Bay Marine Park and World Heritage Site.
The main attraction are t ...
*
Shark Bay Marine Park
*
Shell Beach
*
Small Islands
*
Zuytdorp Nature Reserve
Bays of the World Heritage area
*
Hamelin Pool
The Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is a protected marine nature reserve located in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Shark Bay in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The nature reserve boasts the most diverse and abundant examples ...
*
Henri Freycinet Harbour
Henri Freycinet Harbour, also known as Freycinet Estuary, is one of the inner gulfs of Shark Bay, Western Australia, a World Heritage Site that lies to the west of the Peron Peninsula.
It has a significantly larger number of islands than Hameli ...
*
L'Haridon Bight
L'Haridon Bight is one of the bays on the eastern side of the Peron Peninsula in the Shark Bay World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
At its southern end lies Shell Beach, which is part of the very narrow Taillefer I ...
Islands of the World Heritage area
*
Bernier Island
Bernier Island is one of three islands that comprise the ''Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve'' in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia.
The island and the neighbouring Dorre Island were locations for a lock hospital in ...
*
Dirk Hartog Island
A dirk is a long bladed thrusting dagger.Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), ''Dagger'', The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. VII, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (1910), p. 729 Historically, it gained its name from the Highland Dirk (Scot ...
*
Faure Island
Faure Island is a 58 km2 island pastoral lease and nature reserve, east of the Francois Peron National Park on the Peron Peninsula, in Shark Bay, Western Australia. It lies in line with the Monkey Mia resort to the west, and the Wooram ...
Peninsulas of the World Heritage area
*
Bellefin Prong
*
Heirisson Prong
*
Carrarang Peninsula
*
Peron Peninsula
Peron Peninsula is a long narrow peninsula located in the Shark Bay World Heritage site in Western Australia, at about 25°51' S longitude and 113°30' E latitude. It is some long, running north-northwesterly, located east of Henri Freycin ...
IBRA sub regions of the Shark Bay Area
The Shark Bay area has three
bioregion
A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use the ...
s within the
Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) system: Carnarvon, Geraldton Sandplains, and Yalgoo. The bioregions are further divided into subbioregions:
*
Carnarvon bioregion
The Carnarvon xeric shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of Western Australia. The ecoregion is coterminous with the Carnarvon Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) bioregion.[Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth.
At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...]
bioregion (GS) –
** Geraldton Hills sub region (GS1) – Zuytdorp Nature Reserve area
** Leseur sub region (GS2) – (not represented in area)
*
Yalgoo bioregion
Yalgoo is an interim Australian bioregion located in Western Australia. It has an area of . The bioregion, together with the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains bioregions, is part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion as cl ...
(YAL) –
** Tallering sub region (YAL2) (not represented in area)
**
Edel subregion (YAL1) – Bernier, Dorre and Dirk Hartog Islands
See also
*
Search for HMAS ''Sydney'' and German auxiliary cruiser ''Kormoran''
*
List of islands in Shark Bay
This is a list of the islands in the Shark Bay area of the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia, (between 24°30′0″ and 26°30′0″ S, and 112°0′0″ and 114°30′0″ E).
There are approximately 30 small islands in Shark Bay; all a ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Shark Bay, Western AustraliaUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage List
Australian National Heritage Register listing for Shark Bay, Western Australia*
Shark Bay Terrestrial Reserves and Proposed Reserve Additions: Management Plan No. 75 2012 Department of Environment and Conservation. 2012.
Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery CentreShark Bay World Heritage AreaShire of Shark Bay
{{Authority control
World Heritage Sites in Western Australia
Australian National Heritage List
Coastline of Western Australia
IMCRA meso-scale bioregions