Protecting Gnaraloo beaches

What should I do?

Gnaraloo does not allow visitors to drive any vehicles, 4Wheel drives or quad bikes on beaches or in the fragile dune complexes along the Gnaraloo coastline.

Why is this important?

Beaches are breeding areas for turtles and birds

Gnaraloo is situated adjacent to the Ningaloo Marine Park within the Ningaloo National Heritage listed area. Beaches along the entire Gnaraloo coastline house significant sea turtle rookeries which are critical breeding areas for endangered sea turtles as well as birds. This includes Loggerhead (Caretta caretta), Hawsbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and Green (Chelonia mydas) turtles, all species of conservation concern (IUCN Red List). Great pressure is exerted on the population numbers of these turtles worldwide. It is currently estimated that only 1 in 10,000 turtles hatched along the Ningaloo coast will survive to reach reproductive maturity, an event which in itself may take upwards of 60 years to commence! The image below demonstrates the mortality rates of turtle hatchlings along the Ningaloo coast, with the grey hatchlings representing the 9,999 turtles that do not make it and the blue hatchling representing the 1/10,000 turtles that survives to reproduce!

By driving on and over the beach, you would be disturbing turtle nests submerged within the sand, including impacts on egg chambers and creating wheel ruts that make it difficult for turtle hatchlings to quickly and safely reach the ocean before consumption by a multitude of terrestrial predators, such as sand crabs and sea gulls.

Please help us to look after the Gnaraloo turtles by keeping vehicles off beaches! For more information about the Gnaraloo turtles, please see other information about the Gnaraloo Turtle Conservation Program on our website.

The hidden world of sand life

Beach sand contains a hidden world of life. Macrobenthic Invertebrate organisms, invisible to the naked eye, live in beach sand in the tiny spaces between grains of sand. This includes sea-snails, shrimp and other tiny animals. Some of these fauna are so small that they can tunnel between sand grains and others clean the sand as they eat. While easily overlooked, these organisms are important building blocks of the eco system, including supporting fish and bird life.

Vehicle driving on beaches causes compaction which crushes this life, reducing biodiversity, biomass and abundance and destroying important eco-system functions.

It is important to remember that the beach is not a marine desert. It is a living ecosystem, full of life.

For more details, click here for an extract from the Catalyst program on ABC TV on the topic.

We would greatly appreciate your support in protecting the Gnaraloo beaches and beach ecology from vehicle impacts!

For more information on 'Beach driving crushes Critters' click here

Thank you, the Gnaraloo team.