DUGONGS

I wanted to photograph dugongs. On the east coast this is not so easy but in Shark Bay and the surrounding marine park there are an estimated 14,000 dugongs, making up about 10% of the total of the world's population. Dugongs, despite their appearance, are more closely related to elephants rather than other marine animals. Individuals can live to be over 70 years old. The typical adult dugong might be just short of 3 metres and about 450 kilograms; the biggest ever recorded was 4.06 metres long and weighed 1,016 kilograms.

The dugong’s name comes from Malay/Tagalog words meaning ‘lady of the sea’ but in other places it is commonly referred to as a sea cow, sea pig or sea camel. It is strictly herbivore and lives on seagrass. The areas where the seagrasses grow determine where the dugong can live. Though most now live in the waters of northern Australia between Shark Bay and Morton Bay. They also live along the east coast of Africa,in the Persian Gulf, between India and Ceylon and small populations near Taiwan and Okinawa. In the 1960s herds of 500 dugongs were observed off the African coast. However dugong number have been in decline and 20% of their numbers have disappeared in the last 90 years.

To photograph these creatures I took a cruise, well a few cruises on the Aristocat 2. The cruise went out every day, firstly visiting a Pearl Farm in the bay. This was fascinating as we were shown the process of the pearls being grown fro  start to finish and how they now are implanting opals and gold in the pearl shells so that the finished product combines pearl and either gold or opal.

We also saw blue snapper being fed, dolphins, turtles and the odd shark. Although we did see dugongs they were pretty elusive preferring to avoid the boats. They would hold their breath for about 8 minutes before coming up for air. Usually this gave a quick opportunity for a photograph, but it was mostly just the dugong’s nose above the surface. Some passenger also took the opportunity to ride in the nets at the rear of the boat on the way back into the wharf. I was also able to get a few shots of the dugong from the shore when I went 4wd-ing.

The dugong diving

Blue snapper

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4WD

One adventure at Shark Bay was to explore the 4wd tracks through Francois Peron National Park. The tracks are all on sand, and in some places very deep sand. I teamed up with three German tourists  who had a similar vehicle to mine. We decided to travel together as if you get bogged in the area it is extremely expensive to be towed out. At the entrance there are air hoses so that tired can be let down and then pumped up when leaving. This allows driving on the sand.

The drive itself was pretty exciting but not difficult or dangerous. At the end we found terrific beaches with very clear water. In the water, close to the shore there were dugongs, turtles, sharks and rays. On the beaches were a number of seabirds and yellow crabs. 

The tracks also led to other beaches and lookouts. At one of these I cooked lunch for all of us and chatted with a family who were camped there for a few days. On the way back we were delighted to find a thorny devil lizard. It was photographed by everyone before removing it from the road.

I also visited Shell Beach. This is a beach composed entirely of small shells. The shells were being mined as building material and there were some houses in Denham made from bricks cut from the beach. There was another caravan park closer to the entrance to the Heritage Area. It was called Hamelin Pools Telegraph Station. Nearby there was a walkway so people could view stomatolites growing at the waters edge. Stomatolites are described as 'living fossils'. They are rock like in appearance but have been built by microbes (blue-green algae). They are 2,000 to 3,000 years old.

MONKEY MIA

After completing the work with AWC I decided to drive north-west to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. Monkey Mia is well known for the feeding of the dolphins, which happens every day. The drive up was through some very sparse country and there was considerable evidence of mining interests at work. After leaving the main north/south highway it is still a drive of about 100 kms out to the reserve.

Shark Bay is the most western point of mainland Australia. Dirk Hartog stepped ashore here on 25 October 1616 to be the first recorded European to discover Australia. The area became settled as an area for guano, pearls and pastoral industries. It also became a source for sandalwood. In 1991 it was listed as a World Heritage area in 1991. The only town in the area is Denham, which began as a pearling camp. Monkey Mia is not a town but a resort.

The area is famous for the dolphins which come int to be fed, usually three times a day. It is also a breeding ground for dugongs and the endangered loggerhead turtles. Other interesting areas are the Francois Peron National Park ,which is popular with 4wd drivers, Shell Beach, where the 'sand' is made completely from small shells, Hamelin Pools, where stomatolites line the coast. While here I also enjoyed a cruise to photograph dugongs and visit the pearl farm.

Feeding the dolphins