All posts tagged: Shark Bay

Tiger Shark Shark Bay Western Australia

Tiger Shark Feeding Frenzy

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Last October we were privy to see some fascinating Tiger Sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) when sailing with the awesome crew of Monkey Mia’s Shotover. This seems a redundant comment to make when Shark Bay is renowned for it’s big population of those undiscerning predators, but whenever they got close to the boat shivers of excitement ran through the crowd. Imagine how the plethora of sharks feeding on the carcass of a humpback whale off Steep Point last Friday must have left the people on those two boats in awe! The shared footage is filmed with a drone by Eco Albrolhos  – please watch the final part of the clip and be convinced that a GoPro is a handy tool in those situations.

Tall Mulla Mulla Ptilotus exaltatus Hamelin Pool Western Australia

Tall Mulla Mulla – Icon of the Outback

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Visiting some of our favorite Australian National Parks is not always easy as many of them are located in the northern part of the continent. Distance is not the major obstacle, as traveling just costs time and petrol, however, it is the climate that makes things complicated. In summer the tropical regions can be unbearable hot with temperatures exceeding 40°C, while the cyclones and heavy rainfall of the so-called ‘wet’ season hinder access to many areas. Unfortunately our leave is mostly taken during summer holidays with the result that many wild places are still on our bucket list. This is exactly why we’re so excited that finally we’re heading up north this July, to visit Karijini National Park in the Pilbara region of Western Australia; an outback adventure we have been dreaming about for many years! The Tall Mulla Mulla (Ptilotus exaltatus) we spotted around the Shark Bay area late last year will definitely be one of many attractions, as this magnificent wildflower is a true icon of the outback.

Stromatolites Cyanobacteria Hamelin Pool Shark Bay Western Australia

The stromatolites of Hamelin Pool

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It’s not a very long drive from the Overlander roadhouse to the old telegraph station of Hamelin Pool, but the dry shrub-like vegetation makes it a rather monotonous one. The barren landscape is an indication of the hot, dry and windy weather in this remote part of Western Australia, a place where summer temperatures average between 35 and 37 degrees Celsius. Those high temperatures create a very high evaporation rate that turns the shallow waters of Hamelin Pool extremely saline – twice as much as regular seawater to be precise. Under normal conditions this hyper-saline water would be diluted by the flow of fresh or low salinity waters, but in Hamelin Pool this is restricted by very low rainfall and a limited tidal flow. So what? Is salt water a good reason to stop in such a desolate corner of the world? Well, in Hamelin Pool it is as this environment is rather unique and one of the reasons why Hamelin Pool – and the whole of Shark Bay – is listed as World Heritage. …

Shark Bay Western Australia

Gutharraguda – Colours of Shark Bay

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In my previous posts I have written about some of our inspiring encounters with the magnificent wildlife of Shark Bay. The Malgana people used to call this land ‘Two Bays’ or Gutharraguda – referring to the shallow waters of Hamelin Pool between Peron Peninsula and the mainland in the North and Henri Freycinet Harbour between Peron Peninsula and Dirk Hartog Island in the South. The old map of French navigator Henri Freycinet shows this piece of remarkable Australian shoreline best. Shark Bay is a unique area with vast beds of seagrass, forming massive meadows in the shallow and warm waters. Seagrasses provide both food and shelter for the stunning array of marine life, but also bind sediments moved in through tides and currants. Accumulated sediments have formed the numerous banks, sills and channels that have turned some of the bay’s waters hyper saline – the area around Hamelin Pool is twice as salty as the open ocean! Although hostile to many animals, the extreme salinity of Hamelin Pool forms the perfect habitat for Stromatolites – single celled …

Emu foot Dromaius novaehollandiae Monkey Mia Shark Bay Western Australia

Yalibirri – Walking with Dinosaurs

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When camping at Monkey Mia it is hard to miss the Emus wandering around the grounds looking for anything edible – or seemingly edible. Regarded by many as a nuisance, for nature lovers as us they offer the perfect opportunity to study them a bit better. What strikes me most about these big birds is their peculiar body structure that is considered by paleontologists as similar to theropods – giant three-toed dinosaurs that roamed the earth in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Their feet are very similar to dinosaur feet, and while looking at them walking it’s impossible not to think of their ancestors with toes curling back first and  spreading out again just before planting their foot –  no wonder Hollywood used emus when creating Tyrannosaurus Rex for Jurassic Park!

Green Sea Turtle Chelonia mydas Monkey Mia Shark Bay Western Australia

Green Sea Turtle – Buyungurra

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Western Australia’s vast and remote Shark Bay is a unique region covering more than 2.2 million hectares of land and sea. It is home to a great diversity of plants and animals, some of them found nowhere else on earth. Unfortunately many of the species that live in this immense wilderness are vulnerable or even critically endangered. One of them is the Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas), a species that depends on the bay’s plentiful seagrass meadows – just as the more than 10,000 Dugongs (Dugong dugon) that graze in this World Heritage Area. Considering the high number of sightings of this massive turtle out in the water, it is hard to believe they are under serious threat. But although Green Sea Turtles are legally protected in Australia and hunting is restricted to traditional use by aboriginal people, they still face numerous challenges. Apart from crabs, goannas, birds and sharks that feed on hatchlings, the major threats are created by human activities. Each year thousands of turtles end up on baited longline hooks as bycatch, …

Bottlenose Dolphin Tursiops Aduncus Monkey Mia Shark Bay Western Australia

Bottlenose Dolphin Puck – Leading Lady of Monkey Mia

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When international dolphin research started in Western Australia’s Shark Bay in 1982, female Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) Puck would never have believed she’d become a true film star – but she did. Just before we left for a trip to this remote World Heritage area 850 kms north of Perth, we watched the 2009 BBC Documentary ‘The Dolphins of Shark Bay’. This documentary follows a family called ‘The Beachies’, named after their regular fishing expeditions in the shallow waters of Monkey Mia. As other dolphin families living in the vast Shark Bay area The Beachies form a tightly knit group led by adult females; matriarch Puck and her daughters Piccolo and Kiya. Together with their offspring they regularly visit the beach of Monkey Mia to hunt or to receive fish from Department of Parks and Wildlife rangers – the perfect chance to meet those big brained mammals up-close and personal! Interaction between humans and dolphins in Monkey Mia goes back long time. Aboriginal fishermen would use dolphins to chase fish close to the shore and share their …