Ningaloo Marine Park stretches 300 kilometres north of the Tropic of Capricorn on the west coast of Western Australia.
The area was declared a marine park in 1987 by the Western Australian State Government and the area was further extended in 2004 to include the entire 300 kilometre length of Ningaloo Reef.
The Ningaloo Marine Park protects Australia's largest and most accessible fringing reef system – one of the longest fringing barrier reefs in the world and the only fringing reef located on the western side of a continental land mass.
The shallow lagoons formed by the reef, and the deeper rapid drop off depth in the north support a spectacularly diverse array of habitats that are home to 200 recorded species of coral, 600 species of mollusc and 500 species of fish, including manta rays, sharks and migratory fish. In some places, depths of up to 100 metres occur within six kilometres of the coastline. Migrating whales and oceanic fish can be found unusually close to the shore.
Some of the fauna found in Ningaloo Marine Park is protected; the blue whale, southern right whale and loggerhead turtle are listed as endangered, while the whale shark (the largest fish in the world), the humpback, fin and sei whales and the flatback, green and hawksbill turtles are listed as vulnerable.
Location: Ningaloo Marine Park is located on the western side of the Cape Range Peninsula and is 1,200 kilometres north of Perth.
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