Welcome to the wild west. Ningaloo Reef is Australia's largest fringing coral reef. Tropical and cold waters meet here on Ningaloo Reef to create an amazing diversity of marine species nestled against an arid coastline. Thousands of marine species call these reefs home. Even whale sharks can’t resist Ningaloo’s remarkable reef systems, visiting here every year to feed in the plankton-rich waters after coral spawning.
In 1987, the Ningaloo Marine Park and Muiron Islands Marine Management Areas were established to form a framework for a multi-use park that provides a wide range of activities. In 2011, The Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area was declared to recognise the outstanding natural beauty and biological diversity of both the marine and terrestrial systems in the region. Ningaloo Reef is home to 300 documented coral species, more than 700 reef fish species, approximately 650 mollusc species and more than 1,000 species of marine algae.
The Ningaloo Coast’s remote and extensive reef systems also mean that monitoring and protecting this ecosystem is a huge undertaking. Citizen science has been identified as an approach to complement government and research monitoring activities to increase the data that can contribute understanding and protecting Ningaloo Reef.
