Why Shark Bay is a World Heritage Area
(http://www.sharkbay.org/WHA_values.aspx)
Shark Bay World Heritage Area covers 2.2 million hectares on the coast of Western Australia. Its colourful and diverse landscapes are home for a profusion of animals and plants, including some found nowhere else on Earth. Its vast seagrass meadows feed and shelter globally endangered species. Complex interactions between these plants, the climate and the marine environment have allowed unusual ‘living fossils’, stromatolites, to thrive, much as they did at the dawn of time. Shark Bay’s extraordinary natural riches are of outstanding global significance.
Shark Bay was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1991 for its natural heritage values. To be inscribed, properties must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of ten selection criteria set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). You can find the full list of selection criteria here. Shark Bay satisfied all four of the natural criteria for World Heritage listing.
In the morning we drove through thick fog on our way to see the attraction of the Dolphin interaction at Monkey Mia.
Photo below is the visitors listening to a fantastic interruptive talk about the dolphins by Garth, the DEC officer.
DEC has a very good Visitor Centre at Monkey Mia with lots of information about dolphins.
After Monkey Mia we travelled to Francois Peron National Park
(http://www.sharkbay.org/francois_peron_np.aspx)
"Protecting the northern tip of Peron Peninsula is Francois Peron National Park, an impressive area of acacia cloaked red dunes and arid shrubland surrounded by turquoise water. Most of the park is a four-wheel-drivers paradise, offering remote camping sites and access to beaches and fishing spots. In the south is the Peron Homestead where you can explore the park’s historic past or relax in the artesian hot tub.
Francois Peron National Park plays a key role in Project Eden, a bold environmental project that is attempting to reintroduce locally extinct species to the peninsula by controlling feral predators."
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