Natural Recycling

Shark Bay reveals two dramatic lessons about natural recycling.

There are only two places in the world where living marine stromatolites are known to occur. Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay is the only place in the world where they can be seen from shore. Microscopic organisms, too small for humans to see, concentrate and recycle nutrients which combine with sedimentary grains to form rigid reef structures called stromatolites. These formations first appeared in the Hamelin Pool roughly 3000 years ago but the organisms that built the structures could date back as far as 3 billion years. A boardwalk allows visitors to walk above the shallow water and observe one of the most unique, ancient marine features in the world. Some describe them as the oldest living fossils on earth. They are believed to grow only 5 cms in 100 years.

There are plenty of places in Australia called Shelly Beach, but Shell Beach, Shark Bay is altogether different. From a distance the beach sparkles with what appears to be white pure sand. Close up, there is no sand. In fact, Shell Beach is one of the few places on the earth where shells replace sand in the most dramatic way. Over 60 kms long, up to 100 metres wide and 10 metres deep the beach is made up of tiny cockle shells. The beach is a series of gentle undulations – a stunningly beautiful rubbish heap of billions of billions of discarded tiny white shells. In previous generations the locals quarried the shells, added cement and made building blocks. The Anglican Church in Denham may be the only church building in the world built almost entirely of shells.

In 1991 UNESCO declared Shark Bay a World Heritage Area. We humans are beginning to learn to recycle, but the earth has been doing it naturally and stunningly forever.