Ningaloo Coast

The Ningaloo Coast is a UNESCO World Heritage Site along the coast of northwestern Western Australia, about 1,200 kilometers north of Perth, protecting the Ningaloo Reef, Australia's largest fringing coral reef and one of the few large reefs to lie so close to a landmass. The listed area covers 705,015 hectares and the reef itself stretches 260 kilometers along the shore, coming within 500 meters of land in places such as Coral Bay. It supports around 500 fish species, 300 kinds of coral and 600 mollusk species, and serves as a breeding ground for loggerhead, green and hawksbill turtles as well as a seasonal home to whale sharks, humpback whales, dolphins, dugongs and manta rays. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2011, and it now draws about 200,000 visitors a year, though marine heatwaves triggered coral bleaching events in 2011 and again in 2025. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/