There’s a unique beach located 45
km south east of Denham, covered shells for 60km stretch to a depth of 7 to
10m. Shell Beach is a beach in the Shark Bay region of Western Australia, on
the northeastern side of the Taillefer Isthmus along the L'Haridon Bight. Shell
beach is one of only two beaches in the world made entirely from shells. The
beach name derived because of great abundance of the shells of the cockle
species Fragum erugatum. The shells have formed a limestone that is acknowledged
as coquina. However, before Shark Bay became a World Heritage Site, the coquina
was mined and used for the construction of a number of buildings in Denham. Shark
Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, unique marine life found in and near its
waters including dugongs, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, various whales and
whale sharks, and the largest seagrass bank in the world, contributed to the
formation of Shell Beach.
The sea-water in the L'Haridon
Bight has a high salinity due to both the geomorphology and local weather of
the area. The high salinity has allowed the cockle to thrive unchecked, since
its natural predators have not adapted well to this environment. The shells
were once used to build the office walls of buildings in the area, some of
which can still be seen today. This beautiful snow-white beach is made up of
millions of tiny shells transforms into a palette of the most intense greens
and blues - and the water is very salty (hyper-saline), making it easy to float
for those who aren’t solid swimmers. Therefore, L’Haridon Bight has been a veritable
cockle paradise for thousands of years, letting the little bivalves to
propagate, flourish, die, and have their shells wash up on shore over and over
and over and over again, enough times to create a dazzling snow white beach. Nowadays,
special licenses are still granted to mine the shells as a source of calcium
for mulch and poultry feed. However, hypersalinity of L’Haridon Bight keeps out
predators of humans as well as cockles, making Shell Beach a popular place to
go for a swim. Also See: Cleft Island, A Granite Island of Wilsons Promontory in Australia
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