EarthWatch: Australia's Shark Bay
Video Player
Video Versions
Australia’s Shark Bay contains the largest beds of seagrasses in the world, as well as some of the oldest lifeforms on Earth.
Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
Image of the Day story by Kasha Patel: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147395/sharks-seagrass-and-stromatolites
Adaptation to ViewSpace by Claire Blome, Margaret W. Carruthers, and Dani Player
Music from Music for Nonprofits
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
Image of the Day story by Kasha Patel: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147395/sharks-seagrass-and-stromatolites
Adaptation to ViewSpace by Claire Blome, Margaret W. Carruthers, and Dani Player
Music from Music for Nonprofits
(SPEECH)
[AWE-INSPIRING MUSIC]
(DESCRIPTION)
Text, Earth Watch, Exploring the blue planet by satellite. Earth Observatory. Earth Observatory dot nasa dot gov. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, Aqua satellite. Australia's Shark Bay. September 30, 2020.
There's a reason why Australia's Shark Bay is a "shark magnet." The area attracts over 320 fish species, and features the largest and richest beds of seagrasses in the world. The Shark Bay is labeled on the western side of Australia. Text, Shark Bay's underwater meadows include 12 of the world's 60 known seagrass species.
An arrow points to sea grasses, a dark green color in the image.
Text, Seagrasses grow in shallow waters close to shore, where they are protected from strong ocean currents and receive lots of light.
Scientists estimate that around 8 million tons of leaf material grow here each year.
The lush seagrass meadows help feed and sustain a variety of animals, including 10,000 dugongs or sea cows.
The shores around Shark Bay also contain stromatolites--mound-shaped rocks made of thin layers of sediment. An arrow points to stromatolite deposts just off the cost of Australia.
Text, Stromatolites are created by microbes that grow in thin sheets, trapping and cementing sediment that builds up over time.
Microbes that form stromatolites have been on Earth for more than 3.5 billion years.
Researchers study the modern stromatolites in Shark Bay to understand ancient marine ecosystems.
This area is vast. Shark Bay's waters, islands, and peninsulas cover more than 23,000 square kilometers (9,000 square miles) along Australia's West Coast.
To learn more, go to earth observatory dot nasa dot gov.