Shark Bay

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Shark Bay

Shark Bay is a locality in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. It is located at approximately 25°30'S 113°30'E, over 800 km north of Perth, on the westernmost point of Australia. It was named by William Dampier, one of the first Europeans to visit Australia in July 1699. Shark Bay lays claim to being the first place of European contact in all Australia with Dirk Hartog's landing in 1616 and thus the first place of 'discovery ' in a formal and documented manner by the outside world. Shark Bay may refer to:

the bay itself, along with its peninsulas and numerous islands
the Shire of Shark Bay
the Shark Bay World Heritage Site
the Shark Bay Marine Park.

It may help the reader to understand the reality of such isolated and vast localities of Australia by a comparing it to a country of an equivalent area in Europe such as Wales: Shark Bay is about the same size but has a population of less than 1,000 people and a coastline of over 1,500 kilometres. The half dozen small communities making up this population occupy less than 1% of the total area.

[edit] Shire of Shark Bay

The Shire of Shark Bay is a Local Government Area of Western Australia. It has an area of 25,423km² and a population of about 950. It is made up of two pensinsulas, located at the western most point of Australia. There is the one town in the Shire of Shark Bay, Denham, which is the administrative centre for the Shire. There are also a number of small communities; they are Useless Loop (a closed mining site), Monkey Mia (a popular resort where Dolphins come in), Nanga and Hamelin Pool. The Overlander and The Billabong are roadhouses. The retiree and social security dependent populace, representing approximately 30% of the population, contributes considerably to the local economy. Collectively the private sector would be the largest overall employer per the salt works at Useless Loop along with the fishing industry and the various retail outlets meeting the needs of the tourist industry. There are some 30 personnel employed by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and twenty by the Shire. There is a primary school and a Distance Education structured secondary school. Numbers of school aged children fluctuate around the 100 mark. Due to the considerable distances involved rather than the crime factor - which is minimal - the Police Station is manned by 3 officers. As with elsewhere in rural Australia the emergency services are operated entirely by volunteers (Fire Brigade, Ambulance, State Emergency Service (SES) and Marine Rescue). There is a Crisis centre, two Churches, a unit of the Red Cross, Returned Services League (R.S.L.), plus the normal amenities / facilities / social organisations to be found in any small Australian rural town; for example, two grocery shops, hardware, laundromat, hairdressing salon, two hotels, three caravan parks, various types of holiday accommodation, butcher, tourist and souvenir shops etc. Social organisation include a bowls club, golf club, speedway, arts society, film club, pistol club, bridge club, crafts group, youth association and facilities for various sports, for example netball, cricket, football. There is no resident Doctor but a full time Nurse in charge of the local Siver Chain Nursing post. Currently a Medical practitioner flies in for two days once a week. The tourist industry - mainly from April until September - witnesses an influx of over 1/4 million people passing through the Shire on the main North South coastal highway of which approx 110,000 actually come into the communities of Denham, Monkey Mia etc. There is an all-weather airstrip (Shark Bay Airport) which can accommodate conventional small jet aircraft on domestic routes.

The Shire of Shark Bay has a mild arid tropical climate, with mean daily maximum temperatures ranging from 22 °C (72 °F) in July to 32 °C (90 °F) in February. Rainfall is low and variable, with most rain falling in the winter months and a certain amount due to cyclone activity. The average annual rainfall is 228 mm.

Local industries include tourism, fishing, salt, pearl marine culturing, mining of shell grit and various pastoral activities.

[edit] Shark Bay World Heritage Site

Map of Shark Bay area

The bay itself covers an area of 10,000 km², with an average depth of 10 metres. It is divided by shallow banks and has many peninsulas and islands. The coastline is over 1,500 km long. It is located in the transition zone between three major climatic regions and between two major botanical provinces.

Dirk Hartog Island is of major historic significance due to early explorers landing upon it.

Shark Bay is an area of major zoological importance. It is home to about 10,000 dugongs (sea cows), and there are many dolphins, particularly at Monkey Mia. The area supports 26 threatened Australian mammal species, over 230 species of bird, and nearly 150 species of reptile. It is an important breeding and nursery ground for fishes, crustaceans, and coelenterates. There are 323 fish species, with many sharks and rays.

Some Bottlenose Dolphins in Shark Bay exhibit the only known case of tool use in marine mammals: they protect their beak with a sponge while searching for food in the sandy sea bottom. Apparently, mothers teach their daughters how to do this.

Shark Bay has the largest known area of seagrass, with seagrass meadows covering over 4000 km² of the bay. It includes the 1030 km² Wooramel Seagrass Bank, the largest seagrass bank 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.

At Hamelin Pool in the south of the bay, living microbes are building stromatolites that are over 3000 years old. The Hamelin Pool contains the most diverse and abundant examples of stromatolite forms in the world.

Shark Bay was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1991. The site covers an area of 23,000 square kilometres. 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. Denham and Useless Loop both fall within the boundary of the site but are specifically excluded from it.