Monkey Mia lies within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, which itself is located on the most westerly point of Western Australia, 837 kilometres north of Perth. Monkey Mia is easily accessible by a 27 kilometre sealed road from Denham, the administrative and service centre for the region. Within the Monkey Mia Reserve, lies Dolphin Beach, the most easily accessible beach in the Shark Bay area. It is a north facing, pristine, white sand beach with crystal clear water, and is sheltered from the prevailing winds off the Indian Ocean. Dolphin Beach, Monkey Mia is world famous for its wild dolphins that frequent the beach interacting with visitors. Visitors can walk into the water, under supervision from CALM Personnel (Dept. of Conservation And Land Management), allowing the dolphins to swim around you, maybe touch you, and thereby enjoy an exhilarating, world class experience!! The dolphins have been frequenting the beach three times a day for 40 years, and have remained wild, living and feeding in the bays and inlets of Shark Bay.
The Shark Bay itself covers 10,000 square kilometres, and is comprised of many bays and inlets, with very shallow waters averaging only 10 metres. These waters are surrounded by coastal cliffs and sand dunes. The region has a very low population of an estimated 1000 people, most of which live in Denham and Useless Loop. The majority of workers are involved in tourism, fishing or pastoralism.
Shark Bay has tours that offer cruises in the bay for the local sea life comprised of Dugongs, Sharks, Dolphins, Turtles (Green and Loggerhead), Manta Rays and a huge variety of fish. The area has vast sea grass meadows (estimated 4,000 square kilometres), which support huge herds of Dugongs that number an estimated 10,000 in total!! These sea grass areas include the Wooramel Sea Grass Bank, the largest sea grass area in the world. There is also good snorkeling at Monkey Rock and wreck diving on the ship “Gundrun”, which is one of the states’ best wreck dives. On land there are ‘Walk and Talk’ tours by the local indigenous people, the Malgana people, 4X4 tours of the Peron Peninsula, tours of the Black Pearl farm, bird watching for the 230 identified species, and fishing galore. You can even fly fish for Bone Fish!!
Shark Bay attracts many tourists, with 170,000 coming to the area per annum, with 100,000 coming to see the wild dolphins and the remainder being drawn mainly for the fishing.
For your information.
Shark Bay World Heritage Area was listed in 1991 for its outstanding universal value in the areas of:- Major stages of the World’s evolutionary history.
Ongoing Ecological and biological processes.
Natural beauty.
Threatened species.
Shark Bay World Heritage Area covers 23,000 square kilometres and includes:-
Shark Bay Marine Park.
Francois Peron National Park.
Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve.
In the south of Shark Bay is Hamelin Pool which is notable for its Stromatolites, that grow out of the hypersaline conditions. They are built by microscopic organisms which form domes of rock-like material in shallow waters. These are representative of the oldest life forms on earth, being 3,500 millions years old.
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