Залив Акул: Всемирное наследие Австралии

Bay of the Indian Ocean in Western Australia

Shark Bay (Malgana: Gathaagudu, "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The area is located approximately north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage Site reads:
"Shark Bay's waters, islands and peninsulas have a number of exceptional natural features, including one of the largest and most diverse seagrass beds in the world. However, it is for its stromatolites (colonies of microbial mats that form hard, dome shaped deposits which are said to be the oldest life forms on earth), that the property is most renowned. The property is also famous for its rich marine life including a large population of dugongs, and provides a refuge for a number of other globally threatened species." The bay features Australia's most abundant marine ecosystems. It is a popular fishing spot.

The record of Australian Aboriginal occupation of Shark Bay extends to years BP. 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. Shark Bay was also visited by Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn in 1772, Nicolas Baudin from 1801 to 1803 and Louis de Freycinet in 1818. In the late 1930s, up to 1,000 humpback whales were taken per season. The heritagelisted area had a population of fewer than people as at the 2011 census and a coastline of over The half dozen small communities making up this population occupy less than 1% of the total area.

The Shark Bay Heritage Area has a hot desert climate under the Köppen Climate Classification, with hot, dry summers; and very mild, relatively wet winters.

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

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. They are used, with numerous other smaller islands throughout the marine park, to release threatened species that are being bred at Project Eden in François Peron National Park. These islands are free of feral non native animals which might predate the threatened species, and so provide a safe haven of pristine environment on which to restore species that are threatened on the mainland. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy is the guardian of Faure Island, off Monkey Mia. Seasonally, sea turtles come here to nest and are the subject of studies conducted in conjunction with the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) on this sheltered island.

Shark Bay is an area of major zoological importance. It is home to about 10,000 dugongs ('sea cows'), around 12.5% of the world's population, and there are many Indo Pacific bottlenose dolphins, particularly at Monkey Mia. The dolphins here have been particularly friendly since the 1960s. 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.

Based on growth rate it is believed that about 1,000 years ago cyanobacteria (blue green algae) began building up stromatolites in Hamelin Pool at the Hamelin Station Reserve in the southern part of the bay. These structures are modern equivalents of the earliest signs of life on Earth, with fossilized stromatolites being found dating from 3.5 billion years ago at North Pole near Marble Bar, in Western Australia, and are considered the longest continuing biological lineage.

Facilities around the World Heritage area, provided by the Shire of Shark Bay and the WA Department of Environment and Conservation, include the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre in Denham which provides interactive displays and comprehensive information about the features of the region.

Access to Shark Bay is by air via Shark Bay Airport, and by the World Heritage Drive, a 150 km link road between Denham and the Overlander Roadhouse on the North West Coastal Highway.