Shark Bay () is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The
UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage Site reads:
The bay features Australia's most abundant .
History
The record of Australian Aboriginal occupation of Shark Bay extends to years
Before Present. At that time most of the area was dry land, and rising sea levels flooded 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 happened upon the area in 1616, becoming the second group of known to have visited Australia, after the crew of Duyfken under Willem Janszoon had visited Cape York in 1606. The area was given the name Shark Bay by the English explorer William Dampier,
Whaling was conducted in the bay in the first half of the 20th century by Norway-owned and their catcher vessels.
The heritage-listed area had a population of fewer than people as at the 2011 census. The half-dozen small communities making up this population occupy less than 1% of the total area.
Climate
The Shark Bay Heritage Area has a
Desert climate under the Köppen Climate Classification, with hot, dry summers, and very mild, relatively wet winters.
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 on the Australian National Heritage List on 21 May 2007
[ under the Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1), 2003.]
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, Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve, Zuytdorp Nature Reserve and numerous protected islands.
Landforms
The bay itself covers an area of , with an average depth of .
Peron Peninsula divides the bay and is the home of its largest settlements as well as a National Park at the northern end.
Dirk Hartog Island 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 Hartog 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. The Shark Bay Discovery Centre in Denham has a replica of this plate.
Bernier Island and Dorre Island 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.
In 1999 the Australian Wildlife Conservancy acquired the pastoral lease over Faure Island, off Monkey Mia. nest there seasonally and are the subject of studies conducted in conjunction with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
Fauna
Shark Bay is an area of major zoological importance. It is home to about 10,000 ('sea cows'), around 12.5% of the world's population,
Some bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay exhibit one of the few known cases of tool use in marine mammals (along with ): they protect their nose with a sponge while foraging for food in the sandy sea bottom. Humpback and southern right whales use the waters of the bay as migratory staging post
Flora
Shark Bay has the largest known area of seagrass, with 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 in Hamelin Pool at the Hamelin Station Reserve in the southern part of the bay.[ 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 and Lake Thetis near Cervantes.][ 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 and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, 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, and by the World Heritage Drive, a link road between Denham and the Overlander Roadhouse on the North West Coastal Highway.
Specific reserved areas
National parks and reserves in the World Heritage Area
Bays of the World Heritage area
Islands of the World Heritage area
Peninsulas of the World Heritage area
IBRA sub regions of the Shark Bay Area
The Shark Bay area has three within the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) system: Carnarvon, Geraldton Sandplains, and Yalgoo. The bioregions are further divided into sub-bioregions:
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Carnarvon bioregion (CAR) –
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Wooramel sub region (CAR2) – most of Peron Peninsula and coastline east of Hamelin Pool
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Cape Range sub region (CAR1) – (not represented in area)
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Geraldton Sandplains bioregion (GS) –
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Geraldton Hills sub region (GS1) – Zuytdorp Nature Reserve area
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Leseur sub region (GS2) – (not represented in area)
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Yalgoo bioregion (YAL) –
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Tallering sub region (YAL2) (not represented in area)
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Edel subregion (YAL1) – Bernier, Dorre and Dirk Hartog Islands
See also
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Search for HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
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List of islands in Shark Bay
Further reading
External links
